An authentic collaboration from CALM and DanTDM to help young people's mental health

This is so weird for me.

Much of my personal time is spent trying to surgically remove my 13-year-old son from a screen, often with Dan TDM on it. It's a relentless and thankless pastime. And here I am, singing the praises of this YouTube sensation when it comes to his recent collaboration with CALM.

As we all know, maintaining good mental health is important, for us all but especially children.

Nothing new there.

And it's no coincidence that as we see our children spend more time on social media and engrossed in the Metaverse, spending less time in reality, we also witness a worrying rise in anxiety and a deterioration of mental health across Gen Z, and as young as Gen A.

So, for a social media giant (in their world) like Dan TDM to use his influence for good impresses me.

CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, helps to get people talking about mental health and this time, it's talking to kids.

Working with social legend DanTDM, who plays Minecraft and other games on YouTube with a running commentary—a phenomenon that kids love—they created a mock video of him talking to his audience in the usual way, but with a hidden message.

When he asks you to play it back, you see the words he really wants to say; 'I'm feeling really down. I'm in over my head. I can't take this much more. I don't know where to turn. I need help.'

It's not fireworks, I grant you, but it speaks in the exact dialect that the audience understands. Again, not fireworks, but they just got it right.

Like I say, it's with some irony that the message has been broadcast via YouTube and social networks considering the research showing how it adversely affects children's mental health.

However, this is the way of the world and if this is how we need to talk to young people for them to understand its importance, then so be it—and congrats to CALM and DanTDM for making something I'm happy for my son to watch.