What is hate speech?
Hate speech is defined as having target groups and is characterized by harmfulness, such as belittling, humiliating, dehumanizing or threatening targets. Derogatory expressions can take the form of words, social media posts, text messages or videos. Hate speech fuels discrimination and hostility and undermines the principles of equality and respect for diversity.
How does hate speech affect kids’ brains?
Generation Alpha (born 2010-2024) is the first generation to experience portable digital devices throughout their lifetime. While excessive screen use has its own set of risks, the exposure rates for online hate speech for adolescents can be upwards of 70%, and nearly half of teens have been bullied or harassed online. Younger children exposed to hate speech are most vulnerable to the negative effects, due to critical periods of brain development.
Research has found that frequent and repetitive exposure to hate speech leads to desensitization to verbal aggression, more negative evaluation of targets of hate speech and greater distancing, resulting in prejudice. A neuroimaging study found that hate speech results in underactivity in brain structures that are related to empathy when observing another’s suffering.
What about public hate speech by adults in authority?
Listening to the news, kids can hear hate speech regularly, such as the president referring to immigrants as “bloodthirsty criminals,” bragging about aggressively groping women and belittling numerous individuals (e.g., “lowlife,” “dummy,” “loser,” etc.). Other elected officials and their supporters have also contributed to this unfortunate discourse, and the frequency and intensity of hate speech seem unparalleled in today’s political climate. A Pew Research Center study last January found that seven in 10 Americans say that elected officials should avoid aggressive language, and another study found that most citizens believe it is inappropriate for lawmakers to use obscene language publicly, yet it is omnipresent.
Words matter. When kids are exposed to repeated messages involving misogyny, racism and bullying that come not only from peers, but from adults in leadership positions, this perpetuates tolerance of harmful behavior. In addition, when trusted adults let hate speech from other adults slide, this creates an environment that supports this behavior.
What can we do?
By recognizing the detrimental impacts of misogyny, racism and bullying on mental health and the collective community, having conversations about this topic with children may be a first step. Representation in leadership and policymaking that counters hate speech is important for modeling adaptive, respectful problem-solving. Parents and trusted adults stepping up to shut down hate speech or to counter public hate speech in conversations at home or school is critical. Prevention programs aimed at hate speech (e.g., HateLess) have found that children can build skills to increase empathy, self-efficacy and counter-speech. Modeling ally relationships, encouraging empathy in everyday life and reinforcing that kind words hold power are actions we can take to reduce the harm of hate speech to our kids.
Words form the foundation of a child’s view of others, themselves and the world. Hate speech has no place in these developmental spaces.
“We must never forget how easily hate speech can turn to hate crime; how ignorance or indifference can lead to intolerance; or how silence in the face of bigotry is complicity” (United Nations 2022).
Dr. Melissa Fisher Paoni is a licensed clinical psychologist with Springfield Psychological Center, LLC.
This article appears in Summer 2025 May 2025.
