Overview

• Footage of the deaths of Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska spread rapidly across mainstream social platforms and into schools, group chats and teen feeds, reaching children who did not seek it out.
• Major services said they were removing posts, adding warning screens and restricting some videos to adults, yet multiple versions remained accessible through searches, misspellings and recommendation feeds.
• TikTok and Snapchat said they moved to prevent unexpected exposure, and Meta said it applied age gates and warning screens, but watchdog tests still surfaced graphic clips on Instagram Teen and other feeds.
• Pediatric and mental‑health experts urged parents to initiate conversations, monitor exposure, watch for sleep or behavior changes and use strategies such as limiting feeds, visualization and follow‑up check‑ins.
• Advocates and parent groups renewed calls for platform accountability and legal guardrails, with researchers faulting recommendation algorithms for pushing violent content and supporters backing the Kids Online Safety Act.