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.”

  • @peekingduck@lemm.ee
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    182 months ago

    The funny thing is that people like Tate would be the first to be eaten when the world ends lol

  • @venusaur@lemmy.world
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    492 months ago

    Yall didn’t see this coming with the red pill derived slang that kids have been using? They’re obsessed with their value. It’s terrifying and capitalism loves it.

      • @Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        I don’t know much more than you, but they said it right in the comment. “They are obsessed with their value” Such as, “High value man” “low value man” ect

        I do know my 14 year old nephew is obsessed with making money in ways I never saw in my youth cohort

        • @Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I don’t really see this as something new. None of it really. There have always been backward ass people. They have always called other kids losers and ostracized them. There has always been a classroom full of kids dragging everyone around them down. School never solved these problems so how am I supposed to react when I hear it’s getting worse?

        • Guy Ingonito
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          142 months ago

          Nothing is more toxic than obsessing over money and status. Literally will poison your soul and ruin your life.

            • @vga@sopuli.xyz
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              2 months ago

              Capitalism is an inadequate reason for all this, because we had decades of capitalism without this level of shit and toxicity.

                • @BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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                  02 months ago

                  I’d argue it’s not the inevitable outcome of capitalism. The grifters are connecting and feeding off each other like never before though. Trump/Tate/Farage/Rogan/Jones/Brand/Peterson/Shapiro are a few that spring to mind. They’re probably not sitting round planning stuff (well Shapiro probably is in the dorkiest way possible) but they amplify each other, vouch for each other etc etc.

                  They’re parasites with no moral compunction, they spot a glitch where they can get support, money and power and exploit the shit out of it with no regard to the consequences.

                  To my mind they harken back to the bullies of the 90s (and I’m sure before) and appeal to that mindset, wokeness bothers them because it represents progress that patches the glitch. I could ramble for hours but I’ve no solution, I wish someone did.

      • @venusaur@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Rizz, alpha/beta/sigma, mid, simp. A lot of importance placed on your value, your masculinity and a lot of overlap between gaming and red pill content.

        You got kids mewing trying to get their jawlines looking nice. Little girls obsessed with makeup and skincare. It’s wild and people think it’s all innocent. It’s not. It’s early indoctrination.

        • @faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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          22 months ago

          It’s honestly wild to me that people in my age bracket can grow up with heroin chic, and think it somehow just vanished into the ether. I don’t know why it’s so hard for them to understand that kids are just getting hit with an evolved form of the same bullshit message that you’re worthless if you don’t fit a specific aesthetic.

            • @faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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              12 months ago

              It was just the “goal” aesthetic I was trying to meet as a young woman. So many of my classmates developed an eating disorder or just started using drugs because the “strung out supermodel” look was what everybody wanted.

              Its just a precursor carrying the same message kids are gettimg today. That you’re worthless if you don’t look the right way, and you should hurt yourself to look the right way.

              • @venusaur@lemmy.world
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                22 months ago

                Ah I see. Yeah the more insecure you are the more money they can make from you. Especially the more unattainable the ideal is.

        • @BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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          12 months ago

          Thanks! I feel the only new things here are simp and rizz if I’m honest. Simp seems to have gone the way of woke in that it’s lost most of its meaning, but when I see it used on YouTube it’s sinister AF. Tbh I’ve noticed this a lot on YouTube of late, high degree of racist and misogynistic comments in videos that feature a woman doing something “incorrectly” or if something criminal happens and it’s not readily apparent what the race of the perp is.

          • @venusaur@lemmy.world
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            12 months ago

            You and I are getting the same algorithm cuz I’ve seen the same stuff on insta. I had to deleted it finally. Couldn’t tolerate the intolerance and stupidity. Just a circkejerk of losers.

  • @floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    252 months ago

    Research from anti-fascism organisation Hope Not Hate, which polled about 2,000 people across the UK aged 16 to 24, discovered that 41% of young men support Tate versus just 12% of young women.

    That is quite a worrying statistic: 41% of young men endorsing a human-trafficking misogynist rapist.

  • @dick_fineman@discuss.online
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    372 months ago

    Fine, just fail them. This is a problem for the parents to address. And if the parents refuse, then they can enjoy having a child who lives off of benefits and aspires to be an “influencer”. Lol.

  • @SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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    1252 months ago

    I don’t think it is social media. It is much more simple: people can’t spend time with each other. Employers keep reducing the wages, while maintaining or increasing the amount of work their employees have to do. This means that workers can’t invest time into friends or family, which in turn deprives children of healthy role models.

    Jackasses like Tate get to influence the children, because there is a void that has been left empty - Tate has enough wealth and time to fill in for society. Work culture is a ravenous beast, forever chasing workers. If you pause, you lose everything. So you might as well sacrifice the time you could spend with family, since you would lose them anyway if you shirk being a breadwinner.

    Optimization for the sake of line going up, inevitably destroys everything that surrounds the pillar that society is forced to worship.

    • @arun@ani.social
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      2 months ago

      It’s not either or. It could be both. In rhis case, most of these reasons can be traced back to the perversion of capitalism.

    • @stickly@lemmy.world
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      62 months ago

      I would argue that those factors aren’t a direct cause, but the isolation leaves them vulnerable to things like this. The internet used to be wide open and your semi-random traversal of independent sites would still expose you to a diverse array of people and content.

      The pursuit of profit led to massive, accessible, engagement driven social media platforms. Optimization for ad views meant segmenting demographics and serving them distilled content. The hyper specific content led to these demographics living in echo chambers based on their flavor of polarizing content.

      The Tate-sphere is built around exploiting that isolation and selling bogus solutions. There’s no specific reason the algorithm funnels into it other than it’s catches a broad user base on a charged topic => $$$. The algorithm could just as easily push young men into fighting for socially beneficial causes, but anger is a strong emotion that gives the most money.

    • @MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
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      292 months ago

      Jackasses like Tate get to influence the children, because there is a void that has been left empty

      I’d like to amend this to say that there is void that support “boys”. There’s a lot of encouragement for the development of girls into STEM, into sports, into everything else but there’s no encouragement for boys. Boys are left to fend for themselves and if they don’t get the right support and encouragement at home, they end up ripe for influencers like Tate.

      • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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        162 months ago

        A lot of them spend their free time in their bedrooms, gaming. Their only friends are online gamers that are in other parts of the world. They have no actual physical interaction.

        I’ve even seen posts where young men in their 20s are finally making enough money that they can finally visit online friends that they’ve known for years, often describing them as “best friends.”

        • @SwordandArt@lemmy.world
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          92 months ago

          It’s interesting my friends kid is 13. A couple of years ago they were able to take a trip across country to visit their online friends that they spend all their time with in games. Those kids are all girls. This life style truly isn’t exclusive to one gender. The father works a 9-5 and the mother is a stay at home mom with some side hustles for extra cash. Their kid seems to be kind but who knows what she is really getting into online. This world is like a caricature of itself.

          • Muad'dib
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            22 months ago

            I’m glad that people can’t hide behind a face anymore. In the old times, and this still happens in some places, people will get away with abuse because they’re good at using their faces to manipulate people. Preachers, community leaders. They used body language to win people’s trust and gain positions of power to abuse people, especially children.

            On the internet, people have to be more honest. Video chat is unpopular, so most people are only using words to communicate. Sometimes voice. You’re looking straight at someone’s soul with less distraction from the physical plane. It’s safer.

            I wouldn’t trust a guy who I’ve only ever met in the flesh. Ugh, creepy.

    • @Master167@lemmy.world
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      542 months ago

      I would also include the death of the “third place”. Because even if you work enough to survive, where do you spend your time outside of the home with other people in your community without spending money? Even worse options if you want kids allowed.

      One of the only places I know of is the library. But I’d be very surprised by an 8-10 year old boy spending their time at the library.

  • @Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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    112 months ago

    I swear people refuse to take accountability for anything. It’s not social medias fault. This is POOR PARENTING. Plain and simple.

    • @stickly@lemmy.world
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      112 months ago

      So over a few years millions of parents decided to collectively take a hard pivot into bad parenting? Couldn’t possibly be an unprecedented media environment with algorithmic targeting?

      • @Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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        92 months ago

        No but a generation? Yes 1000%. Parents are responsible for their children. Their media usage, their behavior at school, literally everything. A child can not be held accountable by themselves. It won’t ever happen without teaching them. Parents are responsible for teaching their kids manners.

        If you believe the answer to this problem is banning social media, you are not looking any deeper than this article and are falling for click bait.

        • @stickly@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          If you believe there should be no accountability or oversight for the richest companies ever that have deep personal access to billions of people across the globe, you should wake to the realities of the 21st century.

            • @stickly@lemmy.world
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              12 months ago

              It’s not social medias fault. This is POOR PARENTING. Plain and simple.

              Sounds like absolving social media to me.

              The complexity of social media engineering and the scope of its impact is unprecedented. It’s not at all the same thing as video game or TV panic. When you account for how much real-life peer discussion is driven by these platforms, protecting your child from this toxic rhetoric is nearly impossible.

              You used to have to show your ID to rent a movie in person, why is doing it online any different? If you (rightfully) are concerned about data collection and surveillance, push for legeslative protections on that topic. This is a completely separate issue with a very clear root cause.

                • @Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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                  12 months ago

                  Because that data is stored and passed on to third parties in most cases. Because data breeches are a common occurrence nowadays. Because gorvernments and companies can use that data against you later on.

                  I’m just curious… How did you sign up for internet service? Can you walk me through the process?

                • @stickly@lemmy.world
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                  12 months ago

                  The solution is to give those laws teeth. Harsh regulations on platforms that serve unmoderated content open to everyone. Enforce transparency on content serving algorithms. Massive penalties for security breaches. Ban platforms that don’t comply.

                  If you’re worried about state actors having access to your clearnet data, that’s pretty much unavoidable in the internet age. You can lessen that by pushing against the digitization of society. You shouldn’t need a smart phone or internet service to live daily life.

                  Support brick-and-mortar stores, your local library, a local hobby group. Campaign against always-online car features, IoT e-waste, traffic surveillance laws, etc… Don’t make me choose between subjecting children to a stream of unregulated bullshit and the right to privacy. It’s a false dichotomy propped up by our need for digital convenience.

        • @Zanathos@lemmy.world
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          52 months ago

          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.

    • @Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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      12 months ago

      Poor parenting is certainly an issue, but saying “it’s not social medias fault” is like saying the opioid epidemic “isn’t Purdue’s fault”. The people who manufacture and distribute the addictive and harmful product should be the first ones we go after. No amount of individual accountability will solve the problem as long as multi-billion dollar corporations are pumping this shit out 24/7.

  • @secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    There was always a large number of stupid kids who were jerks in school, but it was always hidden behind a mentality of stern rebukes of fights and an occasional suspension. Now, all of those same types of moronic assholes have a digital distillated stream of garbage that fits with their natural tendancies, putting these idiots into hyperdrive.

    Honestly, it’s probably better that the problem gets worse so that it unmasks the high amount of bullying and abuse that’s normally accepted in schools.

    Worst of all, when bullies harass and attack and beat people over and over in school, on the rare occasion when a student defends themself, the defender often ends up charged because “cool” bullies get a free pass unless bones are broken or the victim dies, while uncool victims are castigated by schools for defending themselves. The unfortunate recent charging of the innocent Karmelo Anthony with murder for refusing to be bullied by some asshole jock is an excellent example of this.

    Andrew Tate is not the problem, this problem has existed for a long time with school just letting it fester. Tate at least finally makes the problem noticeable. The problem has always been school administrators who allow this sort of stuff to happen.

  • @biofaust@lemmy.world
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    322 months ago

    Send them to a Catholic male-only school, which incidentally is also one of the most right-wing places I can imagine. Let’s see how long they remain up to their “masculine” standards.

      • @biofaust@lemmy.world
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        102 months ago

        I am just saying that they don’t know what they are asking for with this behavior: such places already exist and they are abusive to their own members.

        • @daltotron@lemmy.ml
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          12 months ago

          They’re likely all the way in for this kind of culture because they are victims of those same kinds of places. People who grow up in catholic school are the ones who grow up to be catholic schoolteachers. Who grow up and send their kids to catholic school. That’s kind of how it works.

  • @skozzii@lemmy.ca
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    262 months ago

    Where are the parents, if my son pulled that shit I would put him a position where he MUST listen to and work for women until he realizes how ridiculous he is.

  • FlashMobOfOne
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    382 months ago

    Stories like this are what I think of every time the topic of regulating social media comes up.

    We know it’s programmed to create rage machines. We do, and then people act surprised when social media works as designed.

  • @andrewta@lemmy.world
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    162 months ago

    First. If the kid doesn’t want to talk to the teacher then put the kid into detention until they will. If the kid misses more then a certain number of days of class. Make them take the entire grade again. Fail them.

    Second (and I’m not sure how we would do this) cut them off from the internet. There are books in the library for doing research.

  • @turnip@sh.itjust.works
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    22 months ago

    Due these Andrew Tate fans happen to come from a country that devalues women?

    I’ve seen them not wanting to work with women due to some religious fundamentalism.