In the latest survey of National Education Union members, conducted ahead of Annual Conference in Brighton, 10,578 teacher members and 3,230 support staff members in English state schools gave us their assessment of how harmful and extreme online content is now a common part of pupils’ lives through social media.
We found that:
- According to teachers, the influence of extreme online content and personalities is leading to behaviours that are racist (52 per cent), misogynistic (56 per cent), and homophobic or transphobic (45 per cent).
- For teachers, social media is widely perceived to be linked to loss of concentration (71 per cent), mental health impacts (67 per cent) and sleep deprivation (66 per cent) among their pupils.
- Secondary school teachers report higher exposure and stronger impacts across the board. For example, teachers in those settings are more than twice as likely to see misogynistic behaviours than in primary (78 per cent to 36 per cent), and 23 per cent have themselves experienced it in the form of verbal abuse.
- Open comments show that persistent online bullying is spilling into the school environment, as are safeguarding risks linked to sexualised content.
- 98 per cent of teachers express support for stricter government regulation of tech firms to protect children from addictive algorithms, as do 94 per cent of support staff.
The NEU-led Big Tech's Little Victims campaign is calling for government to raise the age for social media access to 16, and to do more to regulate and hold tech firms to account for protecting children from harmful online content.
Harmful and extreme
Speaking to members from across education phases, we found that the negative effects of social media on young people are now pervasive. In a multiple-choice question, we asked teachers which types of content are having an influence on pupils.
Just over a third of primary teachers (36 per cent) responded with “none of the above”, dropping to 29 per cent in special schools and PRUs, and a striking 10 per cent in secondaries. This tallies with many social media platforms requiring users to be 13+ years old to register an account.
It is also notable that younger teacher respondents are more likely to report observing certain forms of content than those aged 50+. Examples are homophobic and transphobic content (57 per cent, compared to 38 per cent of members aged 50+) and conspiracy theories/misinformation (52 per cent versus 31 per cent). This may be a generational factor, with the younger respondents typically more digital native and therefore familiar with the language and memes of social media.
The above table covers teacher respondents overall, but it is among secondary teachers where the effects are most apparent. Children in secondary schools are twice as likely to express homophobic or transphobic views (60 per cent compared to 30 per cent in primary). Teachers in secondaries are more than twice as likely to report pupils with misogynistic views as a result of social media use (78 per cent versus 36 per cent). There is a similar trend for racist views (65 per cent in secondary, 39 per cent in primary).
The more explicit harms are also most present in secondary results. Access to pornographic content is an influence (37 per cent, compared to 11 per cent in primary), according to teachers, as is sexual violence (32 per cent, compared to 8 per cent in primary). However, content that condones or encourages violence is not quite as split: 34 per cent of teachers in primary schools are seeing it, compared to 42 per cent in secondary schools, and 45 per cent in special schools and PRUs.
Teachers told us:
"Children measuring their worth in likes and followers. It is damaging their self-esteem."
"Girls comparing themselves to filtered images and influencers, leading to anxiety and not eating."
"Racist and homophobic language learned online is becoming normalised in school."
"Parents say they cannot control their child's phone use, but we are left to pick up the pieces."
- "We have had safeguarding referrals linked to contact with strangers through social media."
Elsewhere in the State of Education survey, we asked teachers and support staff to tell us about verbal assaults which they had personally been subjected to by a pupil in the past year. (1)
Misogyny is the most common form of verbal assault experienced by teachers (16 per cent of all teachers; 19 per cent of women teachers). Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of all secondary teachers and around 29 per cent of all those in special schools and PRUs said they had experienced misogyny. Although sexualised comments were experienced by 9 per cent of teacher respondents overall, this jumps sharply to 19 per cent in secondary schools. In primary schools it is 3 per cent.
"The misogyny we are seeing from some boys is frightening. It is clearly influenced by what they are watching online."
Some 4 per cent of teachers reported racist verbal assaults in the last year, but this varied significantly by ethnicity. Among Black teachers, around one in seven (13 per cent) reported being racially abused by pupils in the past 12 months, compared to 3 per cent of white teachers. (2)
Results for support staff are broadly similar to teachers, with 60 per cent experiencing verbal assaults in the past year. This is consistent across the board, peaking in special schools (67 per cent) but evenly between primary and secondary (59 per cent and 60 per cent respectively). However, misogynistic remarks were directed at a fifth of all support staff respondents working in secondary (19 per cent), with primaries lower at 6 per cent. One in ten (10 per cent) Black support staff have experienced racist verbal assaults in the recent past compared to 3 per cent of white support staff.
Impacts of social media use
We asked teachers if they had observed specific behaviours or impacts on young people as a direct result of social media use.
Two thirds of teachers report seeing a loss of pupils’ concentration as a result of social media use (71 per cent). Two thirds report social media causing both mental ill-health (67 per cent) and sleep deprivation (66 per cent). A majority (55 per cent) report incidents of bullying and harassment as a result of social media use, as well as widespread discriminatory attitudes and behaviours (62 per cent, rising to 77 per cent in secondaries).
"Bullying no longer stops at the school gate. It is relentless and follows them home."
"Constant fallouts from group chats that begin at home and explode in school the next morning."
"Friendship groups are breaking down because of online gossip and rumours spreading rapidly."
"Online comments and messages often escalate quickly, creating serious safeguarding concerns for staff."
"We are dealing with increasing incidents of children sharing explicit images and then being blackmailed.
Secondary teachers are most likely to report such impacts, but the differences when compared to primary are not always so stark. For instance, sleep deprivation is a major impact according to primary teachers (60 per cent, rising to 74 per cent in secondaries). Two thirds (67 per cent) also tell us that the loss of concentration is an effect of social media use; this view rises to three quarters (76 per cent) among secondary teachers. Mental health issues, however, are witnessed more often by secondary teachers (80 per cent) than primary (55 per cent).
"There is a clear link between heavy social media use and declining attention spans in lessons."
"Children are exhausted because they are online until the early hours. They cannot concentrate and behaviour deteriorates."
Protecting children
One of the most urgent debates in this country today is whether we should continue to allow the owners of social media platforms to have the freedom to harm young minds. Recent research by Big Tech’s Little Victims shows that algorithms are not only addictive but aggressive in nature, driving young people to dangerous content in just a few clicks.
In the State of Education survey we asked teachers if they agree with the notion of stricter government regulation of tech firms to protect young people.
Far from being a polarised debate, teachers have a clear and emphatic view of Big Tech – borne from years of tackling its effects in real life. A neutral response averages just 2 per cent for teachers across categories, and negative just 1 per cent. It is evident that something must be done.
When this question was put to support staff, the view was shared by 94 per cent, with 77 per cent of those respondents strongly supporting the idea. This indicates that while direct classroom exposure may vary, it does not fundamentally alter the profession’s view that we need to see regulatory intervention.
Commenting on the findings of the survey, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"Addictive social media algorithms are feeding our children harmful content on a daily basis. That content is having clear negative effects - with educators reporting racist and misogynistic behaviour by young people, influenced by what they have seen online.
"Other impacts reported by our members - on students' mental health, personal development, and learning - are deeply concerning.
"This is not a problem that schools or parents on their own can fix. The vast majority of teachers and support staff back stricter regulation of tech firms to protect young people. That is why we are calling for government to raise the age of social media access from 13 to 16.
"Ministers must not delay action to rein in tech giants - who profit from every click - and hold them accountable for the harms they cause. Each day that we continue in the present situation comes with a cost, whether it is bullying, worsening mental ill-health, eating disorders, or disengagement from learning. We cannot allow this generation or any other to become victims of big tech profit margins.
Editor’s Note
(1) The figures in this chart and associated tables combine responses to two questions: ”Have you been verbally assaulted by a student/pupil in the last 12 months?” and its follow up “Which if any of the following forms of verbal assault have you experienced from a student/pupil in the last 12 months?”, which was asked only to those who responded “Yes” to the first question. The “Not selected” answers in each category therefore combine respondents who said they were not verbally assaulted at all in the last 12 months, and those who were, but not in terms that fell within that specific category.
(2) The School Workforce Census does not collect data on the number of school staff who are LGBT+ or disabled. As a result we cannot provide a reweighted figure for the proportion of LGBT+ teachers/support staff who received homophobic/transphobic abuse, nor the proportion of disabled educators who received disablist abuseThe online survey of National Education Union members was conducted between 5-16 February 2026.
We received responses from teachers, support staff and other members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This release focuses on the responses from 10,311 teachers and 2,996 support staff in English state schools, reweighted by personal and professional characteristics in line with data from the most recent School Workforce Census.
Deprivation is calculated using IDACI bands, band 1 corresponds to the least deprived schools and band 5 to the most.
For reweighting purposes, teachers in state-funded primary and state-funded nursery schools are counted together, as this is how they are recorded in the School Workforce Census. However, state nursery teachers represent only 0.3% of the primary and nursery sample, and so although the group name is used in full in the charts, we mostly refer to this group as “primary” in the text.