(Montreal) A recent report by MediaSmarts reveals that nearly one out of two young Canadians (47%) is exposed to racist or sexist content online on a weekly basis.
The “Harmful and Injurious Content Online” survey, conducted with more than 600 Canadians aged 12 to 17 in the fall of 2021, also indicates that 32% of teenagers have seen pornographic content without actively looking for it. This involuntary exposure is frequently linked to the sites they visit (60%) and the search engines used (31%), or even because friends have shared it with them (24%).
“When we talk about offensive content, it’s anything that relates to language or images that encourage certain prejudices, and anything that is considered hateful. It can be YouTube videos, channel messages or comments on social networks that provoke strong emotional reactions in the user,” says Marc-Alexandre Ladouceur, media education specialist for the organization.
Data also shows that young people who identify as LGBTQ+ are often more likely to witness harmful content online. According to Mr. Ladouceur, several factors may explain this increased exposure.
“If we rely on the responses from previous years, we observe that 2SLGBTQ+ young people tend to visit more websites that fall into anonymity. It therefore attracts more people who want to share hateful, shocking and uncomfortable things, ”he underlines.
The specialist adds, however, that this hypothesis is purely theoretical, and that it remains to “determine the why” behind the results of the report.
Similarly, teens with disabilities – whether physical, intellectual, cognitive, or related to learning disabilities or mental illness – are also at greater risk of viewing or receiving content uncomfortable (41% versus 15% for those without a disability).
Media literacy, a necessity
Although almost 9 in 10 respondents agree that it is important to denounce racist and sexist content on the internet, 58% of them feel they do not know what to say in the face of such comments.
According to the report, younger teens are more likely to tell their parents or guardians as their first reaction after receiving an uncomfortable item (71%), while older teens are more likely to block the person who sent them content (60%).
“Young people need more expeditious recourse to know how to avoid videos or uncomfortable comments or, if they come across them, to know what to do,” maintains Marc-Alexandre Ladouceur.
He believes that media literacy should “be an integral part” of the curriculum in Canadian schools so that children and adolescents develop concrete tools to manage this kind of content.
“With 86% of young people who feel they can turn to a trusted loved one, these tools must also be developed for adults who could help them, so that everyone knows how to react. The most important thing is to be able to frame and put the compromising elements into context,” concludes Mr. Ladouceur.
The Harmful and Injurious Content Online report is part of the fourth phase of Young Canadians in a Wired World (JCMB), Canada’s longest-ever research study of attitudes, behaviors and the opinions of young people in relation to digital media.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Meta Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.