jugendschutz.netNew report: The Israel-Hamas conflict online

The renewed escalation in the conflict between Hamas and Israel is also making waves online, particularly on social media. Young people are being confronted with anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hatred. Drastic images and videos of both the massacres by Hamas and Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip are also being disseminated. The new report by jugendschutz.net shows that social media services have reacted to this with commitment, but unfortunately also inconsistently by hiding and deleting content.

New report: The Israel-Hamas conflict online

Since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israel-Gaza conflict has been omnipresent in social media. The attribution of perpetrators and victims or the appropriateness of Israeli military action is the subject of controversial debate. Children and young people looking for answers online are quickly confronted with irritating, disturbing and even massively damaging content. This ranges from Israel-related anti-Semitism to atrocity images from Gaza that even show underage victims. jugendschutz.net summarizes the risks young users are exposed to and how the services react to them.

Dealing with problematic and disturbing content can be emotionally challenging for children and young people. Service providers, trusted third parties and society as a whole are called upon to protect young people. They need active support in classifying challenging content, which will enable them to deal with it on their own responsibility in the future.