Summary
Social media influencers are fuelling a rise in misogyny and sexism in the UK’s classrooms, according to teachers.
More than 5,800 teachers were polled… and nearly three in five (59%) said they believe social media use has contributed to a deterioration in pupils’ behaviour.
One teacher said she’d had 10-year-old boys “refuse to speak to [her]…because [she is] a woman”. Another said “the Andrew Tate phenomena had a huge impact on how [pupils] interacted with females and males they did not see as ‘masculine’”.
“There is an urgent need for concerted action… to safeguard all children and young people from the dangerous influence of far-right populists and extremists.”
As a parent with kids who are starting to dip their roles into the digital age, I would also say this is mainly a parenting issue, but the economic “squeeze” is the other part.
There are so many tools available to manage the content your kids consume - ad blockers, family accounts with monitoring and management, ect. I may be biased as I’m in the IT profession, but if you live in this digital age and claim ignorance on anything technology related then it’s no wonder we are on the state we are in.
Many of the responsibilities the US government agencies used to take on themselves have been eroded to be handled by the individual, coupled with a subscription society for the or day to day appliances and tools we use. After working a full time job M-F, and if I don’t have after hours tasks to handle I get maybe 1 hour worth of family before it’s time to pack it up for the night. Weekends are typically house work or chores. I consider myself fortunate to have that much. Squeeze in management of my kids content intake and that’s just more time taken away from everything else on the list.
I’ll do it though because I’ll be damned if my kids grow up like these kids are now.