Most Canadian teens have seen graphic violence online, and algorithms, not searches, are to blame

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When right-wing commentator and social media influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a university campus in September 2025, graphic videos of the assassination quickly spread online. Many of those images also appeared before teenagers worldwide.

July 20, 2026

by Alexa Dodge, Charlotte Nau, Christopher Dietzel, Kaitlynn Mendes, The Conversation

edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

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teens on phones Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

In early 2026, our team at DIY: Digital Safety, a Western University-based research project that builds resources to help navigate online risks, collaborated with the Canadian Center for Child Protection. We surveyed more than 1,000 teens ages 13–18 across Canada about their exposure to real-world violence and gore online. Half had seen footage of Kirk's death.

That statistic is one data point in a much larger pattern. Images of violent content—self-harm, suicide, fistfights, stabbings, mass shootings, animal abuse and sexual violence—used to remain in dark corners of the internet. Now they circulate widely on social media, often right at young people's fingertips.

Our survey found that Canadian teens are exposed to violence and gore at high rates: 85% of participants had seen at least one type of this content online.

Most teens—73%—had seen videos of physical fights, 65% had viewed police violence, 52% saw someone injured or killed in a war and 50% watched someone injured or killed in a car accident.

When asked about the worst video they saw online, the teens described a range of distressing content. Fistfights or beatings—including those resulting in severe injury or death—were the most frequently mentioned. Next were videos of people being injured or killed by police and ICE officers, such as the killings of George Floyd and Renée Good in the United States.

Videos of war or genocide, including those showing the bombing and killing of children in Palestine, were the third most frequently mentioned. Mass shootings, school shootings and animal abuse followed closely behind.

Teenagers most often saw violent content on YouTube (44%) and TikTok (42%), with high rates of exposure also occurring on Instagram (31%) and Facebook (28%). These platforms are known for their sophisticated algorithms, which feed users tailored content based on presumed interests.

The majority of teens said they never sought out violent or gory content. Only 7% had searched for it. Just under 40% reported they mostly saw this content because a stranger had posted it, and around one-third because an app, game or website had shown or recommended it to them.

This finding raises questions about the role of social media algorithms, particularly on video platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Platforms may be serving violent content to young users who are not actively seeking it out and might not want to see it.

This is particularly important because of recent changes to content moderation by tech companies like Meta and X. These platforms have moved to deregulate what can be posted on social media, possibly leaving teens even more exposed to harmful content.

In our survey, 69% of teens wanted to see less violence and gore online, and nearly two-thirds said that seeing this content left them with "negative emotions." One in five spoke about the lasting harmful effects of this content. In fact, many reported feeling scared and anxious after seeing it.

When asked what should be done to fix this problem, hundreds of participants called for better content moderation on platforms. Many teens wanted faster content removal and warnings before seeing these images or videos.

Our survey found that the reporting tools on digital platforms are underused. Only 11% of participants used them.

This suggests that reporting tools are neither sufficiently accessible nor reliable. One in three teens who didn't report violent content said they didn't know how, and one in four didn't think the platform would help.

Calls to make social media safer, especially for young people, are growing in Canada and internationally.

Some platforms, like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, have attempted to respond by launching "teen accounts" that promise a safer experience.

However, research and advocacy organizations have found that many of these teen account features, including those intended to address "sensitive content," are ineffective. Our findings likewise show that most young people are still being exposed to violence and gore online.

This content not only circulates widely on popular social media sites but is also recommended by their algorithms. Platforms should stop this amplification and disable autoplay features so people of all ages do not see unwanted content. Platforms should also offer easy-to-understand, accessible and effective reporting mechanisms so people can quickly remove unwanted content.

Protecting young people does not end with social media platforms. Online harms legislation in Canada should regulate real-world violence and gore, mandate transparency reports from platform providers and require consistent content moderation, especially for children and youth.

Canada's recently proposed Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, would regulate some, but not all, of the violent and gory content young people are seeing online. Although it's not yet clear how this will be enforced in practice, the bill would require social media platforms to submit digital safety plans that could reveal what platforms know about the types of violence and gore their algorithms are promoting and how they are (or are not) effectively moderating this content.

In the meantime, we can support young people by having open conversations about the disturbing content they see online. We can also help by modeling a "healthy digital diet" and advocating for safety-by-design principles to make social media and other platforms safer for all.

BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021. Full profile →

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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