A third of teenagers have witnessed real-life violence on TikTok, study finds

A third of young people aged 13 to 17 have seen images of real-life violence on the social media platform TikTok in the past year, a study has found.

The survey of 7,500 teenagers for the Home Office-backed charity the Youth Endowment Fund found that a quarter had seen similar content on Snapchat, 20% on YouTube and 19% on Instagram.

Researchers found that across all social media platforms, the most commonly viewed type of violent content was footage of fights, with almost half of the children surveyed (48%) having seen such clips.

Just over a third, or 36%, have seen threats to beat someone up, while 29% have seen people carrying, promoting or using weapons.

The survey also reveals that more than a quarter (26%) of 13 to 17-year-olds have seen posts showing or encouraging prejudice against women and girls.

When asked how they discovered the material, 27% said the platform they were using suggested it, while only 9% said they deliberately accessed it.

Half said they saw it on someone else's feed, while the remaining third said it was shared with them.

Jon Yates, executive director of the Youth Endowment Fund, which works to reduce violence among young people, said: “Social media companies need to wake up. It is completely unacceptable to promote violent content to children.

“The children want it to stop. Children should not be exposed to images of fights, threats or so-called “influencers” peddling misogynistic propaganda.

“This type of content can easily inflame tensions between individuals and groups and lead boys to have misguided and unhealthy attitudes towards girls, women and relationships.

“As a society, we have a duty to help children live their lives free of violence, both offline and online. »

A TikTok spokesperson said: “TikTok removes or age-restricts violent or graphic content, most often before it receives a single view, and provides parents with tools to further personalize content and settings security of their teenager's account. »

A Snapchat spokesperson said: “Violence has devastating consequences and has no place on Snapchat.

“When we find violent content, we remove it immediately, we do not have an open news feed, and the app is designed to limit the opportunities for potentially harmful content to spread virally.

“We encourage anyone who sees violent content to report it using our confidential in-app reporting tools.

“We work with law enforcement to support investigations and work closely with security experts, NGOs and the police to help create a safe environment for our community.”

A YouTube spokeswoman said the site has strict policies prohibiting violent content and quickly removes content that violates its policies, with more than 946,000 videos removed in the second quarter of 2023.

Instagram has been contacted for comment.

– 7,574 children (aged 13-17) in England and Wales were surveyed online between May and June.