Types of inappropriate or explicit content

As children start to explore the internet, they may come across content that isn’t suitable for their age, or that may upset or worry them. We’ve got lots of advice to help you and your child if they have seen explicit or harmful content. Take a look at NSPCC’s resources for supporting children and understanding how they might feel if they see upsetting content.

We also have pages about how to identify and deal with different types of inappropriate and explicit content.

How filters and editing tools can affect young people

Many platforms now have in-app filters or editing tools to help you alter an image or video. Some filters can be used for fun, to add silly props or masks to an image or video.

However, when filters or tools are used to enhance or alter physical features, this can lead young people to compare themselves to others online and have an unrealistic view of acceptable beauty standards. It’s not always easy to recognise when someone is using a filter, for example there are tools available that enable you to edit your appearance during a livestream or video call.

What impact can filters and editing tools have?

They can effect young people’s self-esteem and body image.
Young people may feel pressure to post certain images to ‘fit in’.
They can effect young people’s overall wellbeing.
Young people may feel disappointment or embarrassment if they don’t get enough ‘likes’ or comments.
Seeing a friend, influencer or celebrity posting an edited image or video online can also negatively affect a young person’s self-esteem and put pressure on them to post certain types of images.

Remember: Often people will only share certain aspects of their lives which can lead followers to believe that they live a perfect life. Many influencers are paid to create aspiring content as a way to encourage people to buy products and make money.

Supporting your child with what they see and share

The content we see on our social media feeds can have an impact on us but we don’t need to keep following things that impact negatively on our wellbeing. Help them take control of what they are seeing online by encouraging them to do the following:

Talk to them about editing tools, where they see them and how they make them feel.
Remind them that what we see online is often a highlights reel. This can even be the case when someone is sharing something sad. We don’t see the day to day realities of people’s lives online.
Explore options to mute or unfollow accounts.
Encourage them to regularly review their feed and unfollow anyone who doesn’t make them feel good about themselves.
Explore tools that hide likes from other accounts and look for other ways you can help build their self-confidence.
Remind them that they can always come to you if they’re feeling low or worried about something and they can also contact Childline.

Mental health resources on Childline

Childline has lots of resources, advice and activities to help young people manage their mental health:

Calm Zone is full of lots of tips and exercises for them to do when they are feeling overwhelmed or upset.
Taking care of your mental health
Coping with stress
Calm Zone

What’s real and what’s false online?

Digital platforms have made it easier for anyone to share information online, and it can be difficult to determine whether something is real or false.

What a young person sees online can shape how they view the world and impact their overall wellbeing. It’s important to talk to them about how misinformation spreads and how to look out for it.

What do we mean by misinformation and disinformation?

False information that is spread online is known as misinformation or disinformation. These are most commonly referred to as ‘fake news’ or ‘hoaxes’.

Misinformation is where false information is shared by accident without the intent to cause harm. For example, sharing inaccurate photos, quotes or dates online because you believe them to be true.

Disinformation is false information shared deliberately to mislead and cause harm. For example, fabricated news stories and political propaganda.

Hoaxes

A hoax is an example of disinformation. It is where someone deliberately shares false information to trick someone into believing something that isn’t true.

Hoaxes can come in different forms, for example it could be a fake news story or a message

Fabricated or false news stories about current news that might make a child feel worried or scared about what’s happening in the world. This is commonly known as ‘fake news’.
Viral messages containing false information can easily be shared on messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger. If you or your child know the person who has shared it, you might be more likely to believe it.
Deep fakes are videos where people’s faces are edited to make it look like they said or did something they didn’t.
Memes can be used to spread unverified facts.

Hoaxes can be spread quickly as it’s not always easy to spot when something contains false information. People might read something they believe to be true and then go on to share it with others.

If you see something that concerns or confuses you, it’s important to not share it further as this can help draw more attention to them. Instead report to the app, game or site that you’ve seen it on.

Scams

An online scam is where criminals use online platforms to trick someone into sharing personal information like account logins or bank details. Scams can happen on any online platform

Phishing emails or messages sent to a personal device asking you to provide personal information or contain blackmail demands. Sometimes these will be made to look like they’re from credible organisations or businesses.
Promotion of products or false adverts that contain untrue claims. For example a fake competition or a product that claims to do something it can’t to encourage others to purchase it.
Catfishing where some will pretend to be someone else to trick them into doing something.
Competitions or quizzes where you are led to believe there is a prize.
Identity theft where people are tricked into sharing personal information to help them hack other accounts.

Online Challenges

An online challenge is an online activity that normally involves sharing an image or video of yourself doing a set task. They can take place on most online platforms but are most commonly on video sharing platforms like TikTok or YouTube.

Some online challenges can be fun for young people to participate in. For example, challenges that involve dancing or those that help raise money for charity. However, online challenges can become risky when they contain dangerous stunts or activities that could cause physical or psychological harm to a young person or others. Video creators can easily edit videos to make it look they did something dangerous or risky when in reality they didn’t.

Challenges aren’t always activity based, and can encourage young people to share personal or stories about themselves which could upset them and others.

Young people might feel more pressure to take part in a challenge if their friend or someone they follow online, such as an influencer or celebrity has participated. Challenges can also go viral and be seen as harmless fun, both of which can entice young people to take part.

How does it spread?

Misinformation and disinformation can spread on most online platforms that have communication tools. This includes social media and video-sharing platforms, games, forums, comment sections, email and messaging apps.

We all want children to have a safe and positive experience when they go online, but sometimes your child might come across things they’d rather not see or which upsets them. This could include violent or distressing content, terror or extremist content, racism, hate speech or bullying.

Where might they see this content?

Wherever children and young people can view or share content, there is a risk that they will see something distressing or worrying.

Many apps and sites have moderators in place to help remove content, however some don’t.

Terrorism and extremist behaviour

Young people are likely to get their news online. This does mean that they will see content being shared about distressing events like terror attacks, which can be very hard for them to make sense of.

Hearing about terrorist attacks or bombings can make children very anxious or scared. Sometimes this can include eyewitness videos which can be distressing for anyone to watch. This type of content can be shared very quickly online and may also leave young people with questions or fears about their own or others safety.

We know that the online world is being used to radicalise young people so you should talk to your child to help them question things that they are reading or being told online to enable them to not be influenced in this way.

It’s important to talk to your child about what they are seeing online, particularly in the aftermath of events. Childline also has information for young people about dealing with news of terrorism, attacks and bombings.

Cyberbullying

Bullying is hurtful and exists online just as it does offline. Online it can take many forms such as sharing embarrassing photos, nasty comments, or dislikes. Because kids spend so much time on their devices, if they are being bullied it is hard to escape it.

Cyberbullying can happen in different ways, but some examples might be:

Sending unkind messages or comments.
Sharing images or videos of someone without their permission.
Excluding someone from a group chat or other online activity like gaming.
Pressuring another person to say or do something that makes them feel uncomfortable.
Setting up groups or accounts to encourage others to be mean to someone else.

Childline have some valuable information to help your child recognise and deal with cyberbullying.

We also have advice for parents and carers to help keep children safe from bullying, wherever it happens.

Hateful content

Hateful content is where others are inciting hatred towards an individual or a group. If the focus of the hateful content is a protected characteristic, then it’s a hate crime.

Hate crime is where a person focuses on disability, race or ethnicity, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation or gender identity to abuse another person. Hate crime can happen online as well as offline.

If your child experiences this, they might feel frightened or angry about the abuse. But your child may also see this behaviour directed at other people. You should explain that hate crime is illegal and that it can be reported to the police. Discuss with your child what they can do if they see this happening and explain that they shouldn’t ignore it.

Encourage your child to respect other online users and to think before making a comment, sharing an image or sending a message. Sometimes it can be a good idea to wait a little while and think if what you are about to do could hurt someone’s feelings.

What should you do if they do see this content?

Report it – Make sure you and your child know where you can report content. Look at our online reporting page for more information depending on what you want to report.

Set up parental controls – Setting up parental controls can help prevent it happening again.

Explore in-app settings – Look for content or age settings on the app to help limit certain types of content.

Show them Childline’s Calm Zone – The Calm Zone has activities to help children feel better when they are feeling anxious, scared or sad.

How to spot misinformation online

It’s important to remind your child that not everything they see online is real and encourage them to always check before they share. Here are some things you should encourage them to do:

If your child sees something online that worries or upsets them encourage them to not share. Remind them they can speak to you, their teacher, another trusted adult, or a Childline Counsellor if they have questions about something they’ve seen.

If they come to you, and you aren’t sure, you could try speaking to your child’s teacher or contact the NSPCC Helpline to speak to an advisor.

Always check the source and the date of the information. Does it come from a reputable organisation that they’ve heard of? Could the image or video have been edited? Encourage them to check different sources like other news or fact-checking websites such as Full-fact or Snopes and compare information.

Also think about whether it conflicts with your own knowledge of the topic.

Remind them to never take part in a challenge that involves stunts or that could cause them or others physical or emotional harm.

Having regular conversations with them about what they’re doing online can help to open up the conversation about what is and isn’t real online. Try asking them about some of the challenges they take part in with their friends or ask them to show you their favourite online challenge.

Often online platforms will show us content based on what we like. Try to encourage your child to look at a range of different resources to learn and access new information.

Reporting hoaxes, scams and online challenges

If you or your child comes across a hoax, scam or risky online challenge you should report it directly to the platform to try and get it removed. Find more information on reporting here.

If you or your child has been scammed online you should report it to Action Fraud.

Childline: How to spot fake news

Childline has some great tips to help people spot the difference between what’s fake and what’s real online

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Inappropriate or explicit content

Advice on supporting children if they've seen harmful or upsetting content online.

Types of inappropriate or explicit content