Sydney, Sep 17 (The Conversation) When the news broke that US political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot at an event at Utah Valley University, social media was the first to alert millions globally, well before journalists had penned any report.
Unlike the past, when news would first appear on mainstream media, the footage of this brutal and public act of violence instantly flooded people's social media feeds. There were no editors to consider whether the footage was too graphic, nor did users receive any warnings before the clips autoplayed.
The eSafety Commissioner in Australia urged platforms to protect children from the footage, emphasizing that "all platforms have a responsibility to protect their users by quickly removing or restricting illegal harmful material."
This instant flow of extreme violence bypassing traditional media filters has become the norm, with significant impacts on young people and society at large.
A Wide Range of Violence
Young people are more likely than adults to encounter violent and disturbing content online, primarily because they frequently use platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X. Recent research from the UK in 2024 indicates most teenagers have seen violent videos in their feeds.
The violence young people encounter ranges from schoolyard brawls and knife assaults to wartime footage and terrorist incidents. This content is often raw, visceral, and unexpected.
A Wide Range of Harms
Exposure to such violent footage can make some children afraid to leave their homes. It can also cause trauma-like symptoms, especially if the violence seems relatable. Social media isn't merely reflecting youth violence; it can also amplify it, with bullying, gang warfare, dating aggression, and even self-harm scenarios playing out online. This exposure can negatively affect young people’s mental health, behavior, and academic performance.
For others, frequent exposure to violent content may lead to "desensitization," where individuals become less empathetic toward suffering and violence. Communication scholars also reference cultivation theory—the idea that consuming excessive violent content can make people perceive the world as more dangerous than it is, influencing their everyday behavior, even if they don't experience violence directly.
A Long History of Violence
Media distribution of violence is an age-old phenomenon. The ancient Greeks depicted battles on pottery. The Romans wrote of gladiatorial combats. Some of the earliest photographs were of the Crimean War. During World War II, people watched cinematic newsreels for wartime updates.
The Vietnam War marked a pivotal moment as the first "television war," showing images of violence and destruction on home televisions, though editorial judgment still applied.
Social media has transformed how we witness violence, often delivering war footage recorded in real time on phones or drones directly to platforms like TikTok or YouTube. This footage often lacks context and is presented similarly to videos of ordinary daily life.
War influencers have emerged, providing conflict zone updates without the editorial training that war journalists possess, blurring the line between reporting and spectacle as their content rapidly spreads to audiences who may not have sought it out.
Countries like Israel have even used war influencers for propaganda, engaging users with content known as “thirst traps”—deliberately eye-catching and sometimes seductive posts designed to attract attention.
How to Opt Out of Violence
There are practical strategies to reduce exposure to unwanted violent content: such as turning off autoplay to prevent videos from playing unpromptedly, using mute or block filters on platforms like X and TikTok to hide content with specific keywords, reporting disturbing videos or images to decrease their promotion, curating your feed to follow accounts offering verified news to lessen the chance of encountering viral violence, and simply taking breaks from social media.
These actions aren't flawless. The reality is that social media users have limited control over what they see, with algorithms often directing attention towards sensational content.
The viral videos of Kirk's assassination underscore the failure of platforms to shield their users, highlighting the urgent need for stricter regulation of social media companies. (The Conversation)
(Only the headline of this report may have been reworked by Editorji; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
