It's Not Just Social Media; It's Not Just Kids And Teenagers.

I'm hearing a lot of stories about how children and teenagers are being affected by the internet, from addiction to suicide stories.

I stand with these young people and their parents because my addiction started in adulthood.

My addiction didn't start with Facebook, X, or any of social media as we know it today.

My addiction started with Dream Arena on the SEGA Dreamcast.

I was 22 years old, and despite being married, I was lonely, with severe anxiety and depression.

I was still under mental health services, despite having left the hospital the year before.

When I met my husband in 1998, I had no idea what chatrooms or the internet were for. The severity of the trauma had caused me to forget a lot of things, including computer systems, and I had never heard of a 'chatroom' until my husband introduced me to the internet.

It started as a bit of fun; somewhere I could play games, chat, meet new people and relax, but it soon turned into something I was doing all day and most of the night.

I was looking after my baby, but as my husband was working then, I was feeling extremely lonely and down, even when my husband was home with me. I could not shake that feeling.

Self-esteem and confidence did not really exist in me at that time, and I struggled deeply with them.

A chatroom, such as Dream Arena, let me talk with strangers and pretend everything was ok, because I didn't have to meet them.

I did meet some people who turned out to be really nice friends on there, but even so, I was still hiding under a mask.

At the time, I hated who I was, and I hated my body. My life felt like it was a complete disaster, despite being married to someone whom I deeply loved and despite being a proud Mum.

These strangers made me feel good about myself. They bolstered my self-esteem and gave me the confidence I craved.

There was one thing they didn't know.

I was vulnerable, and because of that, I was prone to making my personality like theirs, just so I did not have to feel less than who I was.

In all truthfulness, I am very lucky that I wasn't hurt, because some of these people would flirt with me, try to get dates out of me, and ask for personal information.

I never gave them any personal information, but because I was unwell at that time, I constantly had to ask my husband for guidance because sometimes, I did not understand personal boundaries.

The reader needs to be mindful that I was unwell when they read this. I was a victim of abuse, and that itself can cause people to be extremely vulnerable.

After a few months of constant banter, I started feeling that I couldn't live without my chat. I felt that losing chat meant losing friends, and that I was incapable of making friends in real life.

When Dream Arena stopped, my addiction did not stop there.

I became addicted to chatsites I found on the computer, except this time it was worse.

I was still chatting all day and all night; however, I had access to more tools such as companies promoting slimming aids, diets and exercise equipment, often featuring very slim women.

I had nothing against these women, but I felt really bad about my body and looks, and I hated my weight.

Even when I was told I wasn't fat or ugly by professionals and those who loved me, I would still go to extreme lengths just to look like those women.

I had spent most of my life being told I was fat and ugly; in the end, I could not accept my body any other way or understand that everybody had a different body type.

I was only normal if I looked like those women.

This had been rubbed in by exes, bullies, and some abusive adult friends in my life. The internet became a dangerous place for me because it gave me the tools to promote my unhealthy view of my body.

It wasn't long before I was using other chatrooms. I would go out of my way to find them, often hiding some of my activities from my husband because of embarrassment and a lack of understanding of myself.

My husband would argue that my behaviour was unhealthy, and I would argue back because, instead of seeing his point of view, I saw my behaviour as normal.

These chat sites had photos, not just of beautiful women with flat tummies in bikinis, but of men with muscles who enjoyed fitness.

I had a rounded tummy that never flattened, and I hated bikinis because they looked bad on me. I soon started going over the top with diet and exercising, even though I never achieved my 'fantasy body.'

Then came hair and makeup that was advertised all over the web, complete with specific looks and prettier women.

I didn't see this as advertising, which is what a healthy, confident person would have seen; I saw it as something I needed, because it was 'trendy.'

If I wasn't following trends, then I was ugly.

Today, we still have the same problem.

Websites that promote chat where people have to behave a certain way to fit in, only now, we have filters for photos, and images of women who are filtered or dressed a certain way just to advertise their products, and health items, plus exercise equipment that claim big changes or encourage us to slim down.

It's ok to advertise a product, but it isn't ok to advertise it in such a way that it makes people who already have problems feel bad, and often the advertising is dramatic, often advertising 'false' changes to lure people in.

It's also good that we can chat and share things online. However, these places are full of scammers and love-bombers who hide behind big names just to get people to talk to them, and they often use celebrity names just to get the attention they want. Finally, they encourage people to hand over their money through false information and offer V.I.P. and fan cards, which usually cost a lot of money, but the victims do not receive these.

In a recent turn of events, these scammers have developed new tactics.

They claim to be the management teams of famous people, asking fans to reach out to them if a scammer has contacted them, claiming they can help deal with it.

In my own experience, protection methods are needed for children, teenagers and adults alike; for very young children and teenagers, they should not be using social media or the internet unsupervised; and the people creating social media should have more powerful safety tools that only parents can control.

On another note, we have to pay to verify our accounts on some social media sites. While this can be useful, it should be a free safety measure, and it should be mandatory that anyone using social media should verify who they are and their age, as a security measure to protect young people.

There also needs to be a strict safety protocol for vulnerable adults, especially regarding guidance on what they are seeing. It's all very good to have 'sensitive content' buttons, but some vulnerable adults cannot use them.

The only way to deal with this is to have live support that these adults can turn to, and they should be trained in safeguarding.