As social media has become ubiquitous in our daily lives, so has unwanted exposure to graphic content. Teenagers are seeing violence online at unprecedented rates, unintentionally risking desensitization.
Immediately after right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, videos and photos of the incident circulated at M-A.
“It was horrific, I think I saw eight different angles just spread across social media,” senior Gustav Singel said about the incident. According to Deseret News, approximately 60% of Americans reported seeing graphic images of Kirk’s murder online.
Kirk’s broadcast death was not an isolated incident. A few weeks before, videos of a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, also spread rapidly across social media.
“It’s very disturbing, and [the news spread] before Charlie Kirk got shot, too, and I can’t believe all that stuff was put on social media,” freshman Griffin Harris said.
“The more outrageous [social media] makes the violence seem, the more attention it gets,” junior Caitlyn Kavanaugh said.
Social media’s role in sharing violence isn’t just limited to extremes. Many students reported frequently seeing violent content on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. “I’ve seen some school fights and I see car crashes on social media,” sophomore Cassidy Thomas said.
According to the Youth Endowment Fund, 70% of kids see real-life violence on social media. The same research found that teens were most likely to see violence on platforms TikTok and X.
“10 percent of the stuff I see on social media has to do with violence,” freshman Ariya Zaheri, who purposefully avoids violent media, said.
The sheer scale of exposure to violent content, which was unheard of just a couple of decades ago, has changed the way we perceive social media and violence itself.
Doctor Keith Humphreys is a Stanford professor who studies psychiatry and behavioral science. “There is a level beyond, on which the body can no longer sustain that ‘Oh my god’ reaction. ‘I saw it for the first time, and it was shocking. The second time, it was pretty shocking.’ Third time, 50th time, 100th time, 200th time, and you become numb to it,” Humphreys said.
Through repeated exposure—whether wanted or unwanted—people gradually become less reactive to the content.
According to a study conducted by Pennsylvania State University, when children are repeatedly exposed to violent content, they may start to see violence as a normal part of life and become less responsive to the pain and suffering of others.
A study done by Sustain Recovery also discovered that desensitization to violence leads to reduced empathy.
Some apps have censorship policies, such as Instagram’s teen accounts, which limit kids to PG-13 content, and TikTok’s family pairing rules, which allow parents to block certain content. However, there is still no universal policy for social media to censor graphic content.
One possible solution, proposed by Forbes, is the creation of safe zones. Social media platforms could set up “safe zones” where AI could monitor the content children view and keep parents informed.
“I do think [we] have to bring these companies to heel,” Humphreys said. He emphasized that changing the social media environment and what is normalized on social media is necessary for this issue to improve.
Seeing violence online is more than a temporary shock and can lead to serious consequences, such as an increase in violent behaviors and reduced empathy.
“I feel nothing,” freshman Angel Farias said when asked about his reaction to violence on social media.
