Isabella Leverone

The dangers of social media can affect children in many ways.

Social media has grown significantly since the 2010s. It started with MySpace in the 2000s, Facebook, Vine, Music.ly, while later on in the 2020s, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram became more popular.

There are lots in between, but the platforms listed above are the most popular. Most social media platforms usually have censored content. Instagram and TikTok, for the most part, avoid, and restrict, content that is considered to be graphic or sensitive. Reddit and X, however, are not as censored as some of these other platforms.

Recently on Instagram, there have been times when it’s all fight videos, or videos with lots of violence, mostly videos that you don’t usually see while scrolling on Instagram Reels.

Last week, the video of political figure Charlie Kirk being shot in the neck was posted on Instagram. No censors, no blurring, nothing. The whole video of this graphic scene was on Instagram, and within hours, all posts of the uncensored videos were taken down. The videos were very graphic and traumatic for many individuals. While the age limit on Instagram is 13+, there is no reason why children should be able to see videos that are so violent.

If anything, I think that if there can be videos like that on Instagram or TikTok, the age limit should be higher. Anyone can technically have Instagram, but if one kid gets a hold of Instagram, and they see a video as graphic as that, it could be really harmful for them mentally.

The most disturbing thing about this is that if you can see those videos on a platform, that means that the person posting them has no restrictions on what they post.

TikTok has posting guidelines such as no violent crimes or behavior, hate speech or hateful behavior, violent organizations and individuals, youth and adult physical abuse, and harassment and bullying.

There is no reason why any video of someone getting shot is acceptable to have on any platform.