CRC/C/GC/13 brutality of such acts often results in life-long physical and psychological harm and social stress. 27. Violence among children. This includes physical, psychological and sexual violence, often by bullying, exerted by children against other children, frequently by groups of children, which not only harms a child’s physical and psychological integrity and wellbeing in the immediate term, but often has severe impact on his or her development, education and social integration in the medium and long term. Also, violence by youth gangs takes a severe toll on children, whether as victims or as participants. Although children are the actors, the role of adults responsible for these children is crucial in all attempts to appropriately react and prevent such violence, ensuring that measures do not exacerbate violence by taking a punitive approach and using violence against violence. 28. Self-harm. This includes eating disorders, substance use and abuse, self-inflicted injuries, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and actual suicide. Suicide among adolescents is of particular concern to the Committee. 29. Harmful practices. These include, but are not limited to: (a) Corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment; (b) Female genital mutilation; (c) Amputations, binding, scarring, burning and branding; (d) Violent and degrading initiation rites; force-feeding of girls; fattening; virginity testing (inspecting girls’ genitalia); (e) Forced marriage and early marriage; (f) “Honour” crimes; “retribution” acts of violence (where disputes between different groups are taken out on children of the parties involved); dowry-related death and violence; (g) Accusations of “witchcraft” and related harmful practices such as “exorcism”; (h) Uvulectomy and teeth extraction. 30. Violence in the mass media. Mass media, especially tabloids and the yellow press, tend to highlight shocking occurrences and as a result create a biased and stereotyped image of children, in particular of disadvantaged children or adolescents, who are often portrayed as violent or delinquent just because they may behave or dress in a different way. Such stirred-up stereotypes pave the way for State policies based on a punitive approach, which may include violence as a reaction to assumed or factual misdemeanours of children and young persons. 31. Violence through information and communications technologies. 10 Child protection risks in relation to ICT comprise the following overlapping areas: (a) Sexual abuse of children to produce both visual and audio child abuse images facilitated by the Internet and other ICT; (b) The process of taking, making, permitting to take, distributing, showing, possessing or advertising indecent photographs or pseudophotographs (“morphing”) and 10 Information technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones have great potential as positive tools to help keep children safe and as a way to report suspected or actual violence or maltreatment. A protective environment needs to be created through regulation and monitoring of information technologies including empowering children to safely use these technologies. 11