Violence on social media feeds leaves teenagers too scared to go out, study finds

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers are afraid to go out because of the violence they see on their social media feeds, a major study of children in England and Wales has found.

- Robert Booth

One in four teenagers who see real-life violence including fist fights, stabbings and gang clashes online are being served the clips automatically by algorithmic recommendation features, according to the study by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) and shared with the Guardian. Only a small minority actively searched for the violent content.

TikTok is the most likely place for teenagers to encounter violent content followed by X, according to the survey of more than 10,000 young people aged from 13 to 17. New laws will come into effect from next spring under which tech companies will face large fines if they fail to deploy age checks to prevent children seeing harmful or age-inappropriate content, including serious violence.

Eight out of 10 of those who saw weapons in social media clips said it made them feel less safe in their local area, and 68% - the equivalent of about 760,000 teenagers - said it made them less likely to go out. One in nine children had seen zombie knives or machetes on social media.

"Anyone working for TikTok or X should feel ashamed reading this," said Jon Yates, the chief executive of YEF. "You should feel guilty...and then you should turn that into action and do something about it."