Children and Screens, with support from Sandy Hook Promise, releases a first-of-its-kind report urging digital platforms to provide more information to families navigating youth exposure to harmful firearm content.
On this year’s Safer Internet Day, this report calls for six key transparency improvements to put parents—not algorithms, not weapon sellers, or gun influencers—back in charge.
To read the full report, visit: sandyhookpromise.org/untargetingkids
NEWTOWN, Conn., Feb. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Amid growing concerns around children’s online safety and mental health, Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development has released a new report – A Call for Platform Transparency: Putting Parents Back in Charge of Firearm Safety. It outlines a clear, science-informed roadmap for how social media companies have the opportunity to increase transparency around the inappropriate firearm-related content children are being exposed to on their platforms. This new analysis builds on Sandy Hook Promise’s UnTargeting Kids: Protecting Children from Harmful Firearm Marketing findings, which revealed the ways firearm marketers reach children on social media. Youth often see gun content including unsafe handling, violent imagery, and posts from gun influencers. The report offers a set of data-driven recommendations that would help parents better understand how firearm-related content reaches their children online. It outlines six key questions that tech companies could help answer – such as how often minors see firearm content, how engagement is influenced by user data, and whether emotional or mental health indicators affect recommendations. These six transparency factors provide a blueprint to help ensure parents can guide what is best for their family’s safety. “This report is fundamentally about transparency,” said Kris Perry, Executive Director of Children and Screens. “Parents deserve to know what their children are seeing online and how platforms operate behind the scenes – especially when it comes to something as complex and sensitive as firearm-related content.” “Parents should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to online safety for their kids,” said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise and mother of Dylan, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. “Greater transparency gives parents the information they need to be better equipped to support their children’s well-being and safety. Social media platforms must strengthen oversight and protect youth from harmful firearm content.” Key Findings and Takeaways:- Children may be exposed to unsafe or graphic firearm content, sometimes paired with cues indicating emotional distress or aggressive behavior.
- Popular platforms often fail to disclose how frequently firearm-related content is served to or engaged by minors.
- Transparency around digital pathways, influencers, and safety modeling could better equip parents to have meaningful conversations with their children about online risks.
- Social media platforms can detect when kids are struggling emotionally, particularly when they are depressed or lonely, but rarely disclosed in ways that allow families to evaluate risks or patterns.
Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) envisions a future where all children are free from school shootings and other acts of violence. As a national nonprofit organization, SHP’s mission is to educate and empower youth and adults to prevent violence in schools, homes, and communities. Creators of the life-saving, evidence-informed “Know the Signs” prevention programs, SHP teaches the warning signs of someone who may be in crisis, socially isolated, or at-risk of hurting themselves or others and how to get help. SHP also advances school safety, youth mental health, and responsible gun ownership at the state and federal levels through nonpartisan policy and partnerships. SHP is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. About Children and Screens:
Children and Screens: Institute for Digital Media and Child Development is an independent 501(c)3 organization working to help children lead healthy lives in a digital world. The Institute is committed to evidence-based, interdisciplinary, nonpartisan efforts, free from technology industry funding. SOURCE Sandy Hook Promise
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