A/HRC/32/32 by adolescent boys. Boys caught up in violent crime are often exposed to harsh punitive responses by States that create a downward spiral of increasing violence with profound detriment to their physical and mental health and well-being. 43. In line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, States must introduce measures addressing the specific forms of violence faced by adolescents. 25 Recognizing the right of adolescents to exercise increasing levels of responsibility should not obviate States’ obligations to guarantee them protection. 44. Rights to protection and increasing participation are mutually reinforcing. Guaranteeing adolescents the right to be heard, to challenge rights violations and to seek redress empowers them to exercise agency in their own protection. 26 Failure to do so will condemn millions globally to continuing and extreme violations of their rights. 45. The right to protection extends to violence in the digital environment. With growing use of social media and online activity, adolescents are increasingly vulnerable to cyberbullying, which is associated with a wide range of mental, psychosocial, cognitive, educational and health problems, including depression and suicide, as well as other poor coping responses such as problems with alcohol and other drug use. However, it is neither appropriate nor possible to seek to restrict adolescents’ access to the digital environment. Therefore, States should fulfil their obligations through the adoption of holistic strategies aimed at enhancing adolescents’ capacities to protect themselves from online harm, strengthening legislation and law enforcement mechanisms to tackle online abuse, including cross-border abuse, combating impunity and training parents and professionals who work with children. Family life 46. The family, in its diverse forms and arrangements, refers to the essential environment for the well-being, protection and development of children and adolescents. The recognition of diverse family forms is necessary to ensure the protection and promotion of the rights of all of children and adolescents, without discrimination of any sort. 47. Safe and supportive families are crucial to helping adolescents develop to their full potential and attain the best health into adulthood. Therefore, support of the family environment is very important for the physical and mental health of children and adolescents. States should develop policies and services that support families and strengthen their parenting competencies so that all children can grow in healthy family environments. 48. Policies designed to protect families and family values should avoid measures that undermine the human rights of individual family members, including women, adolescents and younger children.27 Such approaches can be detrimental as they may, in the name of traditional values, tolerate or condone violence, reinforce unequal power relations within family settings and, therefore, deprive adolescents from the opportunity to exercise their basic rights. 49. States should take specific measures to ensure that adolescents with disabilities enjoy their right to family life and are not removed from their families against their will. 25 26 27 10 See articles 19, 37 and 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Committee on the Rights of the Child general comment No. 13 (2011) on the right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence. Committee on the Rights of the Child general comment No. 13, para. 63. See A/HRC/31/37, para. 23.