54% of young people encountered hostile messages online

In 2025, online exposure to hostile or degrading content towards specific groups of people or individuals was more common among younger people in the EU and declined with age.

Data show that 54.0% of internet users aged 25-34 and 53.7% of those aged 16-24 encountered such messages. The figure falls to 46.4% for the 35-44 age group and then drops progressively among older cohorts: 38.9% of 45-54 year olds, 32.8% of 55-64 year olds, and 28.1% of those aged 65-74.

Source dataset: isoc_ci_hm

Almost three-fifths of young female internet users saw hostile or degrading online content

Although the 25-34 age group registered a slightly higher share, younger people aged 16-24 are more vulnerable to online exposure, so we will focus on this age group specifically. Among 16-24-year-old internet users, 57.2% of young women reported higher exposure to hostile online messages compared with 50.4% of young men. This pattern was observed across all types of messages.

For both young men and women, the highest shares of hostile messages related to political or social views and to racial or ethnic origin, with women reporting slightly higher shares than men: 42.5% vs 39.3% for political or social views, and 38.2% vs 35.6% for racial or ethnic origin.

However, the largest gaps between young women and young men were recorded when seeing hostile and degrading messages regarding sexual orientation (37.8% vs 32.6%), sex (30.9% vs 24.9%) and disability (23.0% vs 19.3%).

Source dataset: isoc_ci_hm

This news article marks the International Day for Countering Hate Speech.