How common is exposure to content associated with harm among children in Australia?

_{¹ Under the legislation, which came into effect on 10 December 2025, age-restricted social media platforms must take reasonable steps to prevent Australian children under 16 from creating or holding accounts.}

_{² Part of a nationally representative survey of 3,454 children aged 10 to 17 years living in Australia between December 2024 and February 2025.}

_{³ For more information about the methodology of the research, see the methodology report.}

_{⁴ Source: K.1.1 Have you ever seen or heard any of the following things online? You can include things that were said or posted as ‘just a joke’. Important: Please don’t include things you’ve seen in TV shows or movies, like on Netflix or Disney+.}

_{⁵ The smaller sample size for trans and gender-diverse children should be considered when interpreting these findings (n=83).}

_{⁶ ‘Sexually diverse’ includes participants who identified their sexual orientation as 'gay or lesbian’, ‘bisexual’, ‘queer’, ‘asexual’, ‘pansexual’ or that they are ‘still working it out’. Sexuality was asked only of children aged 13–17.}

_{⁷ Arrows denote statistically significant difference between sub-groups.}

_{⁸ A subset of children who had seen or heard content associated with harm online (n=743) were asked further questions about their most recent or impactful experience of this.} 

_{⁹ Q: Think only about the last time you saw [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. Which platform did you see it on?} 

_{¹⁰ Platforms reported by <5% of children combined as ‘Another online platform’.} 

_{¹¹ Q: Keep thinking about the last time you saw [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. Which of the following best describes how you saw it?}

_{¹² Q: How did you feel the last time you saw [RECENT EXPERIENCE]? You can choose more than one answer.}