Social media: Protecting our children needs to be a concerted effort – Editorial

Auckland teacher Martinique's students inadvertently watched video of Charlie Kirk's killings on social media. Photo / Jason Dorday

THE FACTS

• Young students in New Zealand expressed distress to teachers after unintentionally watching a video of the Charlie Kirk assassination on social media.
• New Zealand teachers are calling for more safeguards around the content young people see online.
• Recent research found the most common type of harmful content young Kiwis are seeing is graphic violence.

News this week that teenage students unintentionally watched graphic video on social media of Charlie Kirk being assassinated while they were at school should be sounding alarm bells.

It demonstrates a disturbing escalation in harmful material that young people can access online.

An Auckland high school teacher, known only as Martinique, told the NZ Herald that her 13-year-old and 15-year-old students had seen the footage.

“They were telling me that they had seen someone shot, and that they had watched it on TikTok, and it seemed pretty widespread that most students in the class had seen it.”

One student told her, “Miss, I can’t get the picture out of my head”.

The teacher fears violence on social media is being normalised for young New Zealanders.

Speaking to the Herald’s Michael Morrah, she called the lack of filters and protection for young people “abysmal” and believed social media companies only took action retrospectively.

She also felt social media had normalised violent content for young people.

The New Zealand Classification Office research found the most common type of harmful content young New Zealanders are seeing is graphic violence.

Former teacher Holly Brooker, co-founder of online education group Makes Sense, believes parents should not trust social media platforms to keep their children safe because graphic content is “not failure” but actually “a business model”.

Brooker wants legislation to stipulate clear duties of care for platforms, an independent regulator with enforcement powers and investment in education for parents and children.

Parents and schools constantly grapple with social media safety.

There is a phone ban in schools, but, as clearly demonstrated with the Kirk killing, it is easy for students to get around this.

It raises the question: what impact is this type of material having on our young people?

Tech companies have a huge amount of power, but that also means an important responsibility.

In the case of the Kirk issue, TikTok told the Herald the platform does not allow gory, gruesome, disturbing, or extremely violent content.

A spokesperson says violent acts – such as video of Kirk’s assassination – have “no place in our society” and “additional safeguards” have been introduced.

Meta has this year expanded its Instagram Teen Account protections to New Zealand.

However, it is clear that more work needs to be done.

Protecting our children needs to be a concerted effort.

Brooker’s suggestions make sense and warrant serious consideration.