TAMPA, Fla. — Video of the murder of Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah spread across social media rapidly on Wednesday.
While officials say video evidence helped them identify 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, children and families could easily access video showing the final moments.
"I feel like you can try and scroll past it, but it is kind of hard, you know, if it catches your attention right away, you're gonna want to watch it," says Liz Fahey, a local influencer.
Fahey is not alone in this feeling, Carlos Sauer screens content like this for his family.
He feels like censoring it would take the truth out of his hands.
"I understand that this could be gross or graphic to certain people, but for me personally, I think it's important, and I think for me it's important that I can have access to everything," says Sauer.
"Outside of setting up some child filters on device, there isn’t much you can do to prevent the videos from being seen. Unfortunately, the filtering apps don’t block everything, and as wide as these videos are shared, it will be seen either on social media or on a website at some point," USF associate professor Dr. Thomas Hyslip says in a statement.
Psychologists suggest talking with kids, but doing so in a sensitive and considerate manner.
"The developmental level of your child very much matters in these situations. So the conversations that you have with a teenager as a family really surround how you all talk about different news and political and media events in general," says Jennifer Katzenstein, the co-director for the Center of Behavioral Health at Johns Hopkins All Childrens in St. Pete.
Others recommend taking a break from social media.
"Anything you could do to distract yourself, and perhaps, you know, put that phone away and just take a break because we know that it was making the rounds and, and it was everywhere...it was everywhere on Wednesday," says Nanci Nolan, ambassador for Success 4 Kids and Families with the Crisis Center - Tampa Bay.
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