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In this section:
1. What is encouraging or assisting serious self-harm? |
2. What you can do: reporting it to us |
3. Reporting it to social media companies if it happened online |
4. Help and support |
Encouraging or assisting serious self-harm is when someone tries to persuade you to harm yourself, or helps you to harm yourself.
An offence called ‘grievous bodily harm’ is used to assess the level of harm that’s being encouraged.
This means injuries to yourself like broken bones, deep cuts to the skin or disfigurement. Other serious harm, such as starvation, is also considered.
The physical harm doesn't have to be permanent.
It can happen online or offline and can include things like:
It’s still a crime even if, despite the pressure or encouragement, you don’t actually harm yourself.
It doesn’t mean encouraging you to attempt suicide, although that is also a crime.
You might not be sure who is doing this or why. That doesn’t matter, you can still report it to us and we’ll decide how to follow up on the details you give us.
Next: What you can do: reporting it to us