1 in 3 young teens 'exposed to real-life violence on sites like TikTok and Instagram'

A poll for a Home Office-backed charity has revealed the extent to which youngsters are viewing violence on social media sites including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTubeYoungsters are seeing violence on their smart phones (Image: Getty Images/Universal Images Group)A third of 13 to 17-year-olds have seen footage of real-life violence on TikTok in the past year, research suggests today. The poll of 7,500 teenagers for Home Office-backed charity the Youth Endowment Fund found a quarter had seen similar material on Snapchat, 20% on YouTube and 19% on Instagram. Researchers found that across all social media platforms, the most common type of violent material viewed was footage of fights, with 48% of the children polled having viewed such clips. Youth Endowment Fund executive director Jon Yates said: “Social media companies need to wake up – it is completely unacceptable to promote violent content to children. Children want it to stop. Children shouldn’t be exposed to footage of fights, threats or so-called ‘influencers’ peddling misogynistic propaganda.” Some 36% of those quizzed had seen threats to beat someone up, while 29% viewed people carrying, promoting or using weapons. Twenty-six-per-cent had seen posts showing or encouraging harm to women and girls. Asked how they
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