Social media addiction is responsible for mental illness: State Minister
Social media like Facebook, Google, YouTube, TikTok are responsible for the mental illness of the country's youth. It need to be brought under accountability in de-addiction rather than publicizing programs in the name of financial aid to reduce addiction. State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak has called upon data scientists and psychologists to speak up. At the same time, he has informed about the plan to create high-tech mental health GPT and use it in 14,000 community health clinics of the country and train 350 members of parliament on mental health to overcome this problem.
The state minister made the remarks as the chief guest at the "ICT and Mental Health" round table discussion held at the ICT Tower conference room in Dhaka's Agargaon today (4 July). The round table was jointly organised by Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), UNDP Bangladesh, and Moner Bandhu, a mental health and wellbeing counselling service provider in Bangladesh.
In his speech as a chief guest, Zunaid Ahmed Palak has highlighted the importance of mental health in developing a smart young generation and a robust social system in Bangladesh.
He said, there are 5 to 6 crore Facebook users in the country now. Their algorithm is made in such a way that our youth, teenagers are being influenced in such a way, attracting users, we are getting addicted to negative content in various ways without knowing it.
He urged everyone to be alert now to create smart citizens to overcome this situation. Palak said, we cannot delete all the negative content of the whole world at once. Cyberbullying cannot be eradicated. But we can make everyone aware about mental health, digital and AI literacy. For this, government-private sector, educational institutions and media should work together.
However, the state minister made a strong statement about these problem makers, 'Multinational Social Media Deep Fake Tech Companies'. Said, “Facebook, TikTok, X, Instagram, Imo, WhatsApp all are the main criminal. These Multinational Social Media Deep Fake Tech Companies Are Main Criminal. We have to make them responsible and guilty first. Then they have to explain their responsibilities and bring them to the table.”
Touhida Shiropa, founder and CEO of Moner Bandhu, said, Moner Bandhu is a technology-based mental health start-up. Since its inception, we have been working to deliver mental health services to all levels of people with the help of advanced technology and AI under the overall supervision of ICT Division and Startup Bangladesh. Together with UNDP Bangladesh, we have organized 'I am a friend of mind – mental health training' at the university level in the last 6 months to promote mental health support among young students and build resilience against cyberbullying. We want to create a resilient and smart Bangladesh in the light of Bangladesh Government's National Mental Health Implementation Plan (2024-2029) with the cooperation of all.
The event discussed the joint initiative of ICT Division and UNDP to launch Mental Health and Psychosocial Services (MHPSS) to address cyberbullying and online harm, in line with the National Mental Health Strategic Plan 2020-2030.
Meanwhile, the pilot project started in August 2023 and was successfully completed in May 2024. Under this project, a total of 120 students have been provided 'Amii Moner Bandhu Mental Health Training'. As a result, trained students can provide mental health first aid to their classmates as a 'Mental Health First Responder'. A total of 430 students sought mental health help from these 'Mental Health First Responders' in the past six months. Apart from this, more than eight hundred students have been trained in sustainable environment for mental health and against cyberbullying through this project.
