A mother has expressed deep concern after her 13-year-old daughter watched the fatal shooting of controversial commentator Charlie Kirk on TikTok and described the footage as “not that bad”. The incident has sparked a debate about children’s exposure to violent content on social media platforms.
The mother, a journalist, said she had tried to protect her daughter from harassment and violence, teaching her about bodily autonomy and safety. However, she was unprepared for the desensitisation she witnessed after her daughter viewed the shooting of the 31-year-old hard-right figure, who was killed during a public appearance in the US.
“It wasn’t that bad,” the daughter reportedly said when asked how she felt. The mother said the response left her questioning her parenting and worrying about the impact of algorithms that feed graphic content to young users. She noted that her daughter and her friends are empathetic and politically aware, but that social media has made violent imagery unavoidable.
The mother revealed that during a careers day talk at her daughter’s school, most students said they get their news from TikTok. She warned that parents who are not familiar with the platform risk being unaware of what their children are seeing. “Being clueless isn’t just remiss – it’s hazardous,” she said.
A week after the incident, the daughter described the footage as “gruesome” and “shocking”, admitting there was “a lot of blood”. The mother concluded that while parents cannot fully shield children from such content, open conversations about its effects are essential.
