Children exposed to harmful content within minutes of joining social media

Children in the UK are potentially being exposed to harmful, sexualised and extreme content within minutes of joining social media platforms. The findings come from a new experiment by the Big Tech’s Little Victims campaign. The National Education Union (NEU) leads the campaign, along with a growing coalition of supporting organisations, experts and community leaders.

The social media experiment

‘The Algorithm Experiment’ set out to uncover what children are shown by algorithm-driven platforms when they sign up to social media at 13, the current legal age of access. Over the course of a week, the profiles were served hundreds of pieces of concerning content.

This included material glamourising guns and knives, making explicit references to sex and pornography, promoting extreme fitness regimes and diets, and encouraging misogyny, isolation, self‑harm and even suicide.

Daniel Kebede, NEU general secretary, said:

What this experiment shows is shocking, but not surprising. Children are being exposed to deeply harmful content on social media, even when platforms know their age. This is not accidental – it is how these systems are designed.

At 13, children’s minds are still developing, yet they are being targeted by powerful, unregulated algorithms built to maximise engagement at any cost.

Teachers see the impact every day, with rising misogyny, worsening concentration and pupils arriving at school exhausted by what they have been exposed to online. While parents are left to manage the fallout at home alone.

That is why the government must act now and raise the age of social media access to 16. Every day of delay leaves thousands more children exposed to harm and exploitation.

Four fictional profiles were created on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube, based on typical 13-year-olds in the UK. Two profiles were a girl and two were a boy. They used common interests such as gaming, beauty, music and sport. Researchers then used each platform for up to 30 minutes a day, scrolling as a child would.

On average across the week, the profiles were served concerning content within just three minutes of logging on. And for every minute spent scrolling, they were shown one piece of harmful or inappropriate content.

In some sessions, harmful material was the very first thing to appear. And algorithmic content loops made it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to escape escalating harm. In one session on Snapchat, 86 pieces of concerning content were flagged in 30 minutes of scrolling.

Natalie Cassidy, actor, podcaster and Big Tech’s Little Victims campaign ambassador, said:

Your children viewing content like this is every parent’s worst nightmare. You assume that if a platform knows your child’s age, it will protect them. But this experiment shows that simply isn’t happening.

Parents cannot monitor every scroll, every video, every algorithmic decision. We need the government to step in and put children’s safety before Big Tech’s profits.

The findings mirror what teachers across the UK report seeing every day. New NEU research shows that 70% of teachers frequently see pupils’ behaviour, attitudes or language influenced by extreme or harmful online content. Meanwhile, 89% of teachers believe social media platforms play a major role in exposing pupils to such material.

Differences across platforms and genders

The experiment also revealed clear differences across platforms and genders, finding that:

• Concerning and harmful content appeared more frequently and escalated most sharply across TikTok and Snapchat. Content on Instagram was mostly age appropriate.
• Content on Snapchat became so extreme at one point with self-harm and suicide ideation, that the adult researcher had to temporarily step away from the experiment to protect their own mental wellbeing.
• Girls were disproportionately served extreme body‑focused and sexualised content, including thinspiration, body shaming, adult dating advice, and obsessive exercise. This was often alongside content promoting self‑harm and suicidal ideation. TikTok served the girl profiles content on extreme health, fitness or diet in 92% of the sessions, and sexualised content in 83% of the sessions.
• Boys were funnelled towards violence, misogyny and radicalisation, with repeated exposure to weapons, hostile content about women, racist and anti‑immigration narratives, and figures linked to extremist or conspiratorial views – like Tommy Robinson, Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson. Across TikTok and YouTube, boys’ profiles were served content featuring hate speech or racist narratives in 77% of sessions. On TikTok, misogynistic content appeared in 85% of boys’ sessions, compared with 13% of girls’ sessions. All sessions that flagged content involving weapons or violence were associated with male profiles.
• Mental health distress was a common thread across all profiles. Girls were more likely to be shown content encouraging self‑harm and eating disorders. While boys were more often served content promoting isolation, emotional suppression and anti‑help messaging. Content of this nature appeared in 50% of the sessions. This rose to 74% when just looking at TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.
• Algorithms created harmful content loops that were difficult to escape. The time to first exposure shortened as the week progressed and some sessions were dominated almost entirely by concerning material. The average time to first exposure on day one of the experiment was over six minutes. By the end of the experiment this had shortened dramatically to two minutes.

Parents and teachers are worried

Public concern is already clear. New polling of parents shows that nearly two-thirds believe the current age limit of 13 is too low. More than 70% support banning social media for under-16s, while 90% of teachers would also support a ban.

The House of Lords has already voted in favour of an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to raise the age of social media access to 16. MPs are expected to vote soon. If the amendment fails, the government has indicated it will move to a consultation. But this risks delaying action while thousands more children remain exposed to harm.

In addition to raising the age of access to 16, the Big Tech’s Little Victims campaign is calling for:

• Guidance on the health impacts of social media on children and young people.
• Guaranteed space on the school curriculum to teach digital literacy.
• A watermark for ethical advertising for social media platforms.
• A windfall tax on social media companies to pay for mental health services.

Featured image via the Canary