At first look, stopping college shootings, gun violence, and youth suicide could appear to be the duty of oldsters, educators, or legislation enforcement. However a better look—backed by analysis—reveals a a lot larger fact: The advertising, media, and tech industries play an outsized position in shaping the narrative of how kids view and interact with firearms. That affect can be utilized for good—or stay a harmful drive accelerating one in every of our most pressing public well being crises.
Twelve years in the past, when my son Dylan was killed within the Sandy Hook Faculty capturing, gun violence was lined within the media as tragic however inevitable. Only a grim truth of life in America. However over time, that narrative has modified. The emphasis is now on prevention. We acknowledge that shootings will not be random or inevitable. They’re preventable. And that narrative shift is saving lives.
However there’s a darker undercurrent to this progress—one that can’t be ignored.
The brand new target market: Our youngsters
In a means unmatched by every other business, gun producers are advertising their lethal merchandise to kids on-line, typically via social media influencers. Whereas kids and youths can’t legally buy firearms, they’re uncovered to aggressive, typically militarized or hyper-sexualized content material that equates weapons with energy, identification, and standing.
Our latest report, Untargeting Youngsters: Defending Kids from Dangerous Firearm Advertising and marketing, exposes how the firearms business has refined their methods over the past decade to deliberately goal youth. Ways embody utilizing influencers positioned as friends or position fashions, pushing content material that glorifies violence or revenge, and selling firearms as symbols of masculinity and management.
And it’s working.
A latest survey carried out by KRC Analysis for Sandy Hook Promise, revealed the staggering charges at which kids are uncovered to ads for weapons. Greater than half of boys ages 10–17 report seeing sexually charged firearm content material a minimum of as soon as per week. One in three boys has clicked on a firearm advert, and almost one-third of boys comply with influencers who promote firearms. Disturbingly, most dad and mom are unaware that is taking place on their youngster’s social media feeds.
Why this issues
Youngsters are way more inclined to promoting than adults. Their prefrontal cortex—which governs impulse management and determination making—isn’t absolutely developed till they’re round 25 years previous. They’re extra more likely to take dangers, misread promoting, and mimic influencers. And over time since youth have been uncovered to any such content material, charges of college shootings and youth suicide have skyrocketed. In 2015, there have been 41 college capturing incidents, based on the Ok-12 Faculty Capturing Database. By 2023, that quantity elevated to 340—the best on report. Every of those incidents was preventable. Every life misplaced was avoidable.
3 issues corporations can—and should—do
There’s overwhelming assist for change. The KRC Analysis survey exhibits that 77% of each dad and mom and boys agree: Corporations mustn’t promote firearms to minors. That sentiment is similar in each households with gun house owners and people with out.
It’s time for companies—particularly these in advertising, media, and tech—to align themselves with this nationwide viewpoint and act accordingly. Listed here are 3 ways to corporations can take motion:
1. Undertake age restrictions for firearm-related content material.
Simply as with alcohol and tobacco, gun-related content material ought to be age-gated. Platforms ought to forestall underage customers from seeing this content material.
2. Construct requirements for accountable gun messaging.
There’s a distinction between selling accountable gun possession and glamorizing violence or positioning weapons as instruments to show energy. A long time in the past, gun-related promoting targeted on security and instruction. That strategy possible saved lives. Let’s return to that commonplace, particularly when the message may attain minors. Manufacturers, influencers, and producers can align on voluntary advertising codes that prioritize training and duty over clicks and revenue.
3. Shut social media loopholes.
Platforms like Instagram and YouTube should crack down on gun advertising. Influencers and personalities who promote firearms with out disclosing partnerships ought to be held accountable. Algorithms that feed kids a gradual stream of gun-glorifying content material ought to be reprogrammed with public security in thoughts.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about defending children.
Most of the most influential firearm promoters on-line are dad and mom themselves. Most gun-owning households need their kids to study weapons from a spot of security, not sensationalism. We will and should construct frequent floor round that shared worth and extra safeguarded narrative.
Closing ideas
It’s time for advertising corporations, social media platforms, and gun producers to step up. They’ve a huge impact and are uniquely positioned to form tradition—and defend kids within the course of. By stopping advertisements that concentrate on children, setting stronger algorithms and age filters for content material, and specializing in gun security and duty as a substitute of energy and exploitation, these industries can assist cease gun violence in our colleges, houses, and communities.
Our youngsters shouldn’t be the mass casualties of aggressive advertising methods or passive content material moderation. And the enterprise communities who assist form what children see, hear, and imagine should be a part of the answer.
Let’s do what we’d do if the youngsters seeing these dangerous messages had been our kids—as a result of they’re.
Nicole Hockley is cofounder and co-CEO of Sandy Hook Promise and mom of Dylan, who was killed within the Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty tragedy on December 14, 2012.
