More than half of teachers say students in their schools are being influenced by racist or misogynistic social media content, research suggests.

In a survey of 10,578 teachers by the NEU teaching union, which began its annual conference in Brighton today, one in six said they had experienced misogyny from a student in the past year.

When asked which types of harmful or extreme social media content they had observed influencing students, teachers were most likely to mention misogynistic content (cited by 56 per cent of respondents) or racist content (52 per cent).

Some 45 per cent of respondents said students were being influenced by homophobic or transphobic content, and 43 per cent said conspiracy theories or misinformation.

Social media affecting students’ concentration

The findings come at a time when the government is considering measures to protect under-16s online, which could include an Australia-style ban on social media for children or time limits or curfews.

Almost all of the teachers surveyed (98 per cent) said they would support stricter government regulation of technology companies to protect children from addictive algorithms.

The findings mirror an earlier survey commissioned by Tes, in which a majority of teachers said they wanted greater restrictions on social media for under-18s.

In the NEU poll, most teachers also said that social media had resulted in students losing their ability to concentrate (cited by 71 per cent of respondents), seeing an impact on their mental health (67 per cent) and facing sleep deprivation (66 per cent).

While the House of Lords backed a full ban on social media for under-16s, MPs rejected proposals in favour of introducing more flexible ministerial powers.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, described the impact of social media as “deeply concerning” and called for ministers to rein in tech companies.

“Addictive social media algorithms are feeding our children harmful content on a daily basis,” he said. “That content is having clear negative effects - with educators reporting racist and misogynistic behaviour by young people, influenced by what they have seen online.”

Mr Kebede added: “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 the government to raise the age of social media access from 13 to 16.”

Sexualised comments

Some 9 per cent teachers surveyed also said they had experienced sexualised comments from students in the past year.

More than half said social media use had caused changes in peer relationships (60 per cent) and increased bullying or harassment (55 per cent) among their students.

One teacher in the survey said their school was dealing with an increasing number of cases of children sharing explicit images and then being blackmailed.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said in an interview with the Sunday Mirror that addictive social media features should not be allowed. He said he was “open-minded” about a full social media ban for children, but indicated that the situation would change in some way.

He was speaking after a landmark court case in the US in which a jury found Meta and Google liable for a woman’s childhood social media addiction.