“What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen on social media?”
That’s the question Re: News asked teenagers, and the answers were extreme.
Content warning: This story discusses graphic violence and death.
“Oh, I’ve seen someone get their neck slit open in a mall.”
“Lots of 9/11 stuff and people getting murdered.”
“I’ve seen someone get smashed with some knuckledusters straight to the head, and he is bleeding out of his brain.”
Watch the full video here on TVNZ+
New research from the New Zealand Classification Office found the most common type of harmful content young New Zealanders are seeing is real-world graphic violence.
Researchers spoke to 10 groups of rangatahi across Aotearoa and found it was difficult for them to avoid this content when it popped up on social media feeds, in group chats, or gets shown to them in person.
The teenagers Re: News spoke to said they were only 10- or 12-years-old the first time they saw graphically violent content on social media.
‘Algorithms are designed to keep you interested’
Chief Censor Caroline Flora says young people generally don’t go looking for extremely harmful or objectionable content but it can come up on their social media feeds because of algorithms.
“The algorithms are designed to keep you interested, they take into account who you are your age, your gender, your interests, but also your friends.”
When rangatahi do come across harmful content, Flora says it makes them curious.
“Curiosity can take you a long way in 2025, whereas not even that long ago, you would really have to go hunting for the worst of the worst online.
“Some of them also told us that they were quite keen to see where their line of tolerance was.”
Chris Bowden is the director of educational psychology programmes at Victoria University of Wellington and says harmful content can have a range of impacts on young people.
“It can create anxiety. It can shape their ideas, their beliefs, their attitudes that can reinforce for them that the world is a scary, harmful, dangerous, awful place to live.”
He says if someone watches a lot of porn or graphic violence, that content might make them think those behaviours can solve problems in relationships.
“It can also contribute to isolation and withdrawal from friends and family because they’ve seen this content and they don’t know how to talk about it with other people.”
Parents worried
TikTok’s own research found half of New Zealand parents were worried about inappropriate content.
It says it’s got features to keep teenagers safe, including a family pairing option where a parent can connect their account to their child’s, control screen time and limit the inappropriate content they see.
Instagram says it removes graphically violent content but allows ‘sensitive content’ to stay up, which can include depictions of violence – like people fighting.
It has a ‘Teen Accounts’ feature which makes sensitive content less visible for 13- to 17-year-olds.
To prevent harm, Chris Bowden says you need a “multipronged approach”.
“Where it works most effectively is where young people and parents come together and negotiate a healthy use of media.”
Watch the full video on TVNZ+
