More than half of teachers see harmful social media impacting pupils | The IndependentNotifications can be managed in browser preferences.Jump to contentIndependentSwipe for next articleIndependent Bulletin homepageDownload our appAllNewsSportCultureLifestyleJasmine NordenTuesday 31 March 2026 02:04 BSTHow do young people feel about the U16 social media ban?A National Education Union (NEU) survey of over 10,500 educators found that more than half believe pupils are influenced by racist and misogynistic social media content.One in six teachers reported experiencing misogyny from a pupil in the last year, with 9 per cent also experiencing sexualised comments.Teachers identified misogynistic (56 per cent), racist (52 per cent), and homophobic or transphobic (45 per cent) content as significantly influencing pupils.The majority of teachers stated that social media use negatively impacts pupils' concentration (71 per cent), mental health (67 per cent) and sleep (66 per cent).The NEU is calling for stricter government regulation of tech companies and for the social media access age to be raised from 13 to 16, a stance supported by almost all teachers.In fullTeachers warn of extreme online content influencing pupils in British schoolsThank you for registeringPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in