The manosphere offers boys belonging. We must give them something better

These words have circulated in the media since the Netflix show Adolescence landed on our screens and opened up a much-needed public discussion about what’s going on in the lives of our men and boys. The themes in the TV show touched the nerve of parents across the UK, uniting collective concerns about boys and young men today and how they are being shaped - in a social media-first world, and where community spaces are disappearing at speed.

The problem is that, while welcome, this debate has often tipped into an overly simplistic, alarmist narrative about boys and young men, leaving them feeling like they are the problem and need to be fixed. And while it is important that we focus on the challenges caused by online misogyny, far less attention has been given to the underlying drivers and to the actions we can take to prevent harm.

Today, harmful misogynistic content is reaching boys more often than ever before, with almost three-quarters of Gen Z social media users having witnessed misogynistic content online, with half encountering it every week. When researchers for Laura Bates set up a TikTok account as a teenage boy, they found it took less than 30 minutes on average for extreme misogynistic content to be promoted to the timeline. So we have to look at how boys are being protected, supported and prevented from being harmed online, as well as telling them the rules of engagement.

On top of this, 76% of secondary school teachers and 60% of primary school teachers are extremely concerned about the influence of sexist, violent and misogynistic online content in their schools. The challenge is how we address this meaningfully, without polarising boys and creating a bigger disconnect.

What we need to do is to be in all of the places where we know boys need support. If we remove harmful content, we’re not tackling the root cause. Online communities also bring a sense of belonging, identity and often hope for young men. We need to create both places and relationships that provide connection, purpose and recognition without reinforcing sexism or harmful ideas about masculinity.

We also need much greater accountability for technology companies themselves, including action to prevent algorithms amplifying and monetising misogynistic material. We need to give users actual meaningful control, including the ability to reset, curate or opt out of suggested content. Meta’s recent payout of £17bn spoke volumes about the negative impact it is having on our young people today. What we need to see is meaningful intervention against harmful content on young, vulnerable minds to stop it reaching boys in the first place.

Mental health is a huge problem, more than ever for younger generations. We need to improve young men’s access to mental health services and safe prosocial offline spaces in their community, such as youth centres. If we want young boys and men to come away from online spaces, we need to give them places to be offline. With the rapid closure of youth centres and community spaces, the onus is on the government to address this dearth of space for boys to be boys.

We need to strengthen relationships, sex and health education for boys and girls with a modern and inclusive filter. We need to give parents better support to talk to children about relationships, pornography, online harms and masculinities; and invest in training for teachers, youth workers and coaches - giving them more meaningful adult connections.

Advancing policy solutions in these areas is the work of Men and Policy. Our recent policy roadmap provides the comprehensive agenda we need for government to address these challenges together rather than in siloes, working with organisations and all of us.

Adolescence exploded in our homes because it touched a nerve. We know there is a challenge today to reach boys and support them, and when we do, we support girls, reduce the harms they experience, and drive forward gender equality. We need to connect the dots to make a real difference; we simply can’t advance one without the other.

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Dr Tim Shand from Men and Policy is the author of ‘The Reconnecting Boys and Young Men report’.

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