It can happen that children or young people come across content online that depicts violence. When scrolling through social media, on video platforms or when such videos are shared in group chats in Messenger. This may involve fights, abuse, accidents or drastic images from war zones. Such content can frighten and disturb children or young people. It also violates the right to one’s own image of the person concerned and may even be punishable by law.
Under no circumstances should such content be redistributed. This prevents even more people from seeing the content. If the content is illegal, publishing and redistributing it can even have criminal consequences.
We can also encourage young people to do even more by not ignoring such content, but actively reporting it. Look together to see where the report function can be found on the platforms used, such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok or YouTube. According to the terms of use, violent and cruel content is not permitted and should be deleted. Messages or people can also be reported on WhatsApp.
The online advice platform for young people Juuuport even offers a separate reporting option for young people, e.g. for violent videos, extremism or hate speech. The internet complaints offices FSM, eco and jugendschutz.net then take care of these complaints.
Violence also plays a role in fictional media content, such as films, series or games. Content that is easy for older children, teenagers and adults to process can frighten young children. This is why there are age restrictions for depictions of violence in the media, which are regulated by the protection of minors in the media. The age labels of films or computer games show you as parents from what age the content shown is suitable.
However, children and young people can also come across real depictions of violence online. An experience report from Juuuport clearly shows how differently young people deal with violent videos online and can make it easier for you to start the conversation.
Talk to your child about possible negative experiences online. Show them the reporting and blocking functions on the relevant platforms and discuss how algorithms select content. Also explain how to ‘maintain’ or reset this content to keep your child’s online experience safer and healthier. Talk about what it means when photos or videos have a ‘sensitive content warning’ and what your child should do if this happens. Also find out about the legal regulations for the protection of minors in the media and about technical protection options via apps and settings for your child on devices or in individual services.
Can’t find an answer to your question? Ask your personal questions about your child’s media use directly and conveniently using the messenger service via WhatsApp or Threema. You can find more information here.
