Quote:In a survey study of 200 U.K. teachers, 76% of secondary school teachers and 60% of primary school teachers expressed extreme concern about the influence of online misogyny on their students. Harriet Over of the University of York, U.K., and colleagues present these findings in PLOS One.

Prior research has shown that young students are increasingly exposed to social media content created by misogynistic influencers, such as Andrew Tate and members of the incel movement. However, few researchers have examined how exposure to toxic online misogyny might influence the experiences and behavior of children and adolescents.

To help clarify, Over and colleagues surveyed 100 secondary-school teachers (teaching children aged 11 and older) and 100 primary school teachers (teaching ages 4 to 11) in the U.K. The survey aimed to capture teachers' perceptions of the influence of online misogyny on students.

Analysis of the survey data showed that 76% of secondary and 60% of primary school teachers reported extreme concern about the influence of online misogyny on their students.

When asked about influences on male and female students specifically, the teachers tended to reference instances of male students praising misogynistic ideas and engaging in misogynistic behavior against female students and staff, and instances in which female students were victims of misogyny.

For instance, one teacher reported hearing a male student say it is "ok to hurt women because Andrew Tate does it," while another reported that female students were "worried about coming to school due to what the boys may say or do to them."

Some 90% of the secondary and 68% of the primary school teachers reported feeling their schools would benefit from teaching materials specifically meant to address the impact of online misogyny.

These findings are observational and do not confirm a cause-effect relationship between online misogyny and misogynistic behavior of students. [ Riiight  ] Nonetheless, on the basis of their findings, the researchers call for further research into the issue and suggest that addressing it should be a top priority for policymakers, educators, and academics.

The authors add, "Teachers report that male pupils discuss misogynistic influencers with some regularity and that misogynistic influencers appear to motivate discriminatory behavior towards female peers and female teachers. 76% of secondary school teachers and 60% of primary school teachers reported that they were extremely concerned about the influence of online misogyny in their schools."

Quote:There has also been a dramatic rise of hyper-masculine social media influencers, causing alarm among teachers and teaching unions. These influencers are exposing boys to violence against women as a form of biological entitlement, based on their view that males are an inherently superior sex.
Access to this online material has been linked by teachers to increases in sexual assault and misogynistic behavior.

Quote:One huge part of our society is schools, where Australians spend about 13 years of their lives.
As part of an ongoing, broader study into how online worlds are shaping students and teaching, colleagues and I are surveying South Australian teachers about sexist and other anti-social views among the students.
The survey is ongoing, but our results so far paint a disturbing picture where female teachers are subjected to sexist and abusive language and behavior by male students.

(Mar 24 2025, 4:17 PM)autumnrain Hearing about the open misogyny in Gen Z is so frightening to me. My boss was telling me today that her college age daughter doesn't even want to date the boys her own age because of this stuff and wants to date older guys, which is just scary to me on another front.