Harmful content online seen by teens and adults in the UK 2020

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom in 2020, 65 percent of teenagers aged between 13 and 17 years, had seen offensive or harmful language in online videos where they were not expecting to see them. Just over a quarter of adults aged 18 years and older said they had seen online content that they were sure was illegal. During the same survey, it was found that more than half of the teenage respondents had seen violent or graphic images in online videos where they were not expecting to see them.

Share of teen and adult internet users in the United Kingdom who have seen harmful content online in 2020

Characteristic	13-17 years	Adults
Offensive/harmful language on videos where I was not expecing to see them	65%	41%
Offensive/harmful opinions on videos where I was not expecting to see them	60%	39%
Advertising on videos that is unsuitable for minors/those under the age of 18	57%	35%
Content that may be illegal but I'm not sure	51%	33%
Violence/graphic images on videos where I was not expecting to see them	54%	32%
Unsuitable/graphic sexual imagery on videos where I was not expecting to see them	50%	30%
Content I know is definitely illegal	37%	26%

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Release date

August 2021

More information

Region

United Kingdom

Survey time period

2020

Number of respondents

1,500 respondents

Special properties

1.000 respondents 18 years and older, 500 respondents 13-17 years

Supplementary notes

This statistic using original data from the Government Digital Service and includes copyright material licensed under © Crown, the Open Government License v3.0

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