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Articles on mental health, sex and self-harm received the highest number of views on spunout.ie last year.
The youth information website’s most-read fact sheet was “The effects of social media on mental health”; 89,319 young people read this article.
“How to care for self-harm wounds” and “What to do if your partner doesn’t want to have sex” were the next most-read articles on the site, with 83,658 and 48,809 views respectively.
Other topics that young people sought information on included how to apply for Susi [Student Universal Support Ireland] grants and jobseeker’s allowance, what happens if you are caught with drugs and rights when being questioned by gardaí.
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Covid-19 and climate change also featured in the top 10 most read articles.
In 2020 the site had 2.3 million visits.
Spunout.ie was started 16 years ago and is being relaunched tomorrow with a new logo and redesign.
‘Trusted’
The new site will aggregate articles, fact sheets and advice, to provide comprehensive information to young people. The online launch will take place at 2pm and will be hosted by RTE 2FM DJ Tara Stewart.
Minister for Youth Affairs Roderic O’Gorman will also speak at the launch.
“Last year we had over 2.3 million site visits by young people aged 16 to 25,” said Kiki Martire, director of Spunout.ie.
“They come to spunout.ie to get information they can’t get at school or at home or from their friend group. We’re a trusted, non-judgmental resource and we need to keep evolving in pace with how this age group is evolving.”
Ms Martire added that the website redesign was led by young people. “Our site activity provides us with valuable and reliable data of the observed behaviour of young people in Ireland.”