“[There should be] more rules for social media companies to follow, why is it up to teens to solve. Even parents can’t do much because [people] show me stuff at school I’m not allowed to access at home. Why is anyone allowed to post illegal stuff like murder.”
Young Canadians’ exposure to authentic violent and gore content online
Images of real gore and violence, like police shootings, beheadings, self-harm, and child abuse, used to be difficult to find online and were relegated to niche corners of the internet. Now, they can surface on online platforms that teens use every day. However, no known Canadian research has investigated teens’ exposure to this content, how it impacts them, or what they think should be done about the issue, leaving policy makers, educators, and advocates without the evidence needed to make data-driven regulations and interventions.
To address these gaps, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and researchers from DIY: Digital Safety developed a questionnaire and commissioned Léger, a marketing research and polling firm, to survey nearly 1,000 13–18-year-olds in Canada.
Key findings include:
- 85% of youth said they have seen real-world violence or gore online.
- 50% of youth watched the Charlie Kirk assassination video, while 33% had seen videos of a mass or school shooting.
- 10% reported exposure to child sexual abuse material, while 13% had seen a video of adults being sexually abused.
- Despite these high rates of exposure, only a small minority of teens (7%) said they actively searched for the content. Instead, most said the content frequently appears unexpectedly in posts by strangers (39%) or in algorithmic platform recommendations (33%).
- Exposure to real-world violence or gore was most common on YouTube® (44%), TikTok® (42%), and Instagram® (31%).
- Many teens react negatively to authentic violent and gore content and think it should be better regulated, with the most common suggestion being to ban this content.
Recommendations:
The findings of this report point to evidence-based recommendations for online service providers, government, and frontline supporters. For example, the recommendations for government are that digital safety legislation:
- Should regulate more forms of authentic gore and violence.
- Should apply to a broad range of online service providers.
- Should require online service providers to provide transparency reports about the amount and types of authentic gore and violence they are aware of on their platforms.
- Could require companies to not only provide clear and more uniform content guidelines for users related to violence and gore material, but also to enforce them consistently.
