Over the next four weeks, ITV News and ITV News’ The Rundown are partnering with the Youth Endowment Fund to expose the true scale of teen violence and investigate the relationship between social media, online pressures and real-world aggression.
In a survey of nearly 11,000 children aged 13 to 17 in England and Wales, data shows that in the last year alone, one in eight teenagers (13%) admitted to committing violence. Nearly one in five (18%) said they had been a victim of violence and half (50%) told us they had witnessed violence being committed against someone else.
The Youth Endowment Fund’s research shows a strong correlation between online and offline violence and how "the tensions dividing society" are spilling onto young people’s screens.
Sixteen per cent of young people who had seen real-life violence on social platforms said they had gone on to perpetrate violence themselves, increasing to 22% among those who had viewed content promoting violence against women and girls or posts encouraging harm to specific groups.
ITV News has spoken to services on the frontline who are dealing with youth violence day to day, and have shown us the stark realities of how children are involved, harmed and affected by violent acts both in online and offline worlds.
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