Hospital admissions for children who self-harm have more than doubled in six years, NHS figures reveal.

Doctors last night said they feared it was becoming ‘endemic’ – driven by images on social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook.

Official data shows 3,988 youngsters aged nine to 17 were taken to hospital last year with self-harm injuries. The figure was up from 1,725 in 2011.

Molly Russell from Harrow, Middlesex, was found dead in 2017 after viewing disturbing images and accounts on the social media network

Girls were five times as likely to be admitted with injuries as boys. A shocking 400 cases involved children aged between nine and 12.

The warning came as a former Vogue cover star revealed she was told she was ‘too big’ to take part in a catwalk show. Edie Campbell, 28, said she was dropped at the last minute at Milan Fashion Week.

Psychiatrists believe teenagers’ feelings of worthlessness and obsessions with body image are being driven by the online bombardment of selfies from friends and celebrities. More alarmingly, they say social media is ‘normalising’ self-harm by displaying graphic images of youngsters injuring themselves.

Only last month, a distraught father accused Instagram of helping to kill his 14-year-old daughter Molly Russell. The teenager, from Harrow, Middlesex, was found dead in 2017 after viewing disturbing images and accounts on the social media network. Her family said she had been viewing material linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide.

Dr Hayley van Zwanenberg, a child and adolescent psychiatrist based at the Priory’s Wellbeing Centre in Oxford, said the effect of social media was often to leave children feeling ‘physically and socially’ inadequate.

‘Self-harm is becoming endemic among school children,’ she said. ‘We’re seeing increasing numbers at the Priory who feel completely inadequate physically and socially because they’re bombarded with digitally-enhanced images of celebrities, and friends’ bragging selfies.

‘If a young person doesn’t have perfect skin, or enough ‘likes’, they can quickly feel negative about themselves, worthless and over-wrought.

‘When I ask a child where he or she has learned ways to self-harm, they invariably cite the internet or a friend who has often learned from the internet.’

Dr Louise Theodosiou, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, added: ‘If we look at what’s happening in relation to Instagram, there does seem to be the potential for websites to be normalising self-harm. Self-harm is being normalised.

‘For some young people there does seem to be a very damaging effect on their mood. We don’t yet know what makes some young people more vulnerable. You can see that young people who may be vulnerable to begin with, if they are then accessing websites which are normalising self-harm, you can see how that can be very dangerous.’

Today’s figures from NHS Digital show the number of children aged nine to 17 taken to hospital with self-harm injuries rose by 12 per cent in just one year.

There were 3,545 admissions in 2016/17, rising to 3,988 in the most recent year for which the figures are available, 2017/18.

There were 3,030 admissions involving girls compared to 580 of boys. For the remainder of cases, the sex was not recorded. Some cases may refer to the same child being taken to hospital more than once throughout the year.

Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner, said: ‘The alarming rise in the number of children admitted for self-harm shows how urgently we need a children’s mental healthcare system that provides early help and support. Even with the welcome commitments in the NHS ten-year plan, many children needing help will not receive it.

Girls were five times as likely to be admitted with injuries as boys. A shocking 400 cases involved children aged between nine and 12. File photo of an ambulance

‘I want to see all schools have access to an NHS-funded counsellor, who can deal with problems quickly in school rather than leaving worries to grow and become more serious.’ A spokesman for the children’s charity NSPCC said: ‘These heartbreaking figures are sadly unsurprising; we know from contacts to Childline that many children are being driven to self-harm as a way of dealing with the pressures and demands of modern-day life.

‘Young people are crying out for help and more needs to be done to prevent them from reaching crisis point. A key step in this process is ensuring every child and young person feels confident they will be supported when they do speak up so they don’t end up trapped in a vicious cycle where they believe hurting themselves is the only solution.’

Earlier this month Instagram and Facebook promised to ban some images of self-harm following the outcry over Molly’s death.

But Instagram will still allow users to post images of wounds which have healed so as not to ‘isolate’ those in distress.

Facebook will still let users share admissions of self-harm and suicidal thoughts so they can connect with those who can help. Molly Russell’s father Ian said she had been reading accounts from people who were depressed or suicidal. Shortly after he spoke out, an Open University academic said Instagram was to blame for her 11-year-old daughter’s death.

Nicola Harlow said 11-year-old Ursula jumped from a bridge last January after viewing ‘horrific and distressing’ images. Separate research shows that one in 13 children have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder by the time they reach 18. The study by King’s College London said the risk was highest for those who experienced death of close family members, assault or sexual abuse.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘The Government is committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people and addressing issues such as self-harm, and we are transforming their mental health services – backed by £1.05billion last year alone.

'We are ensuring 345,000 more children will have access to specialist mental health care by 2023/24.

And we’re going further, piloting a four-week waiting time standard for treatment, training a brand new dedicated mental health workforce for schools across the country, and teaching pupils what good mental and physical health looks like through our new subjects of relationships and health education.’

Miss Campbell declined to comment last night.