The proportion of children using social media platforms who have seen violent content

This table shows the percentage of children using various social media and messaging platforms who have encountered violent content. Exposure is most prevalent on TikTok (44%) and X (43%), with nearly half of young users on these platforms reporting that they have seen such material. Around one-third of children encounter violent content on Facebook (33%), Snapchat (32%) and Instagram (31%). Moderate exposure levels are reported on community and video sites such as YouTube and Reddit (both 26%), with lower rates observed on private messaging services like WhatsApp (18%) and Discord (12%). The lowest reported exposure rates occur on specialised communication and streaming tools, including Twitch (6%) and iMessage (5%). The data indicates a clear hierarchy of risk, with public, algorithmically driven platforms showing significantly higher rates of exposure to violent content than private messaging apps.