this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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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."

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

This is totally a diffusion of social media issue. Twenty years ago, the media that kids had available for consumption was age rated. We had agreed as a society that certain things should not be visible to children until they grow up. It was possible to do because it was centralized (TV, movies, radio, print) and it was accountable to regulatory bodies and the rest of society. If a TV channel showed something as shitty as Tate style propaganda, there was institutional pushback, there were letters to the editor, there was someone specific to be targeted for accountability.

With social media being dominated by US style "freedom of speech" algorithms and US style acceptance of the impossibility (or even undesirability) of regulation and with completely unaccountable megacorps running them while giving very minimal if non-existent attention to who is watching what, we have a complete lack of age rating. We have given up on the idea of protecting childhood it seems.

Coupled with every fucking other issue being brought up in this thread, from COVID, to economic issues, to cultural misogyny, there is a perfect storm...

[–] arun@ani.social 13 points 2 days ago

Countries, especially influential ones like the UK, that are suffering from this BS should band together and fine the shit out of megacorps like Google for allowing this filth to fester and the harm it's done so far, and also threaten to revoke their operational rights if they don't agree to strict moderation going forward.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Twenty years ago, the media that kids had available for consumption was age rated.

It was, still is, was ten years before, and trust me that didn't stop me one bit.

What's different then and now is the degree of choice people employ in their media consumption. It's not like there was no Nazi propaganda on the net in 1990, it's that who the fuck seeks that stuff out. The feeds that were choice-free were, yes, sanitised (TV, radio, though if you stayed of long enough TV would show rather interesting things), but also numerous. Like at least seven TV channels over the air, and plenty of radio stations (though most played shoddy music). Imagine having seven tiktok feeds you can't fast-forward but switch in between. On current algorithmic platforms, you skip something, get shown the next thing, algorithm learns about you, about how to draw its hooks specifically into you. Back in the days, you couldn't skip, switched away, and if there was only uninteresting stuff on the other channels you switched off. Internet? Age of web rings, search barely even existed. Anyone remember altavista?

I roamed the library, inhaled multiple series of books whole-sale, but in between, there was always this magic moment: Browsing. Looking at things, shaking them a bit, see if they're actually interesting. Great availability of things, yes, but also limited time, and preferences, so you got picky.

That's the skill that's getting lost: People are outsourcing their consumption choices to algorithms. Worse, ones who care about nothing but retention, how can they keep you hooked so you watch more ads.

...which btw ties back into youth protection. Ratings etc. exist but the general consensus in youth psychology is that as soon as youth seeks something out by themselves, they're ready to consume it. Ratings are there so that kids don't stumble across things inadvertently, not so that they are completely unable to consume it. A hoop to jump through, maybe some secrecy, all that is a proper framework, "they think it's not for me, I think otherwise", puts the mind in the right inquisitive-but-cautious frame. That, however, presumes a choice algorithm that's running in your head, and not in the cloud.

And meanwhile, "media literacy" is understood as "spotting fake information". BS. Any information will become true to anyone if you allow it to be fed to you without getting your own agency involved. The question is less "are kids able to sniff out BS" -- they by and large are. The question is whether they have the power to say "I choose not to continue down this path", whether they have trained that muscle. Because without that no amount of skill in spotting bullshit will save you.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz -4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

With social media being dominated by US style "freedom of speech" algorithms and US style acceptance of the impossibility (or even undesirability) of regulation and with completely unaccountable megacorps running them while giving very minimal if non-existent attention to who is watching what, we have a complete lack of age rating. We have given up on the idea of protecting childhood it seems.

...and you have clearly given up any pretense of not being extremely authoritarian it seems, what the hell does "freedom of speech algorithms" even mean? Rhetorically you are completely mixed up about what is going on and what the solution is, I am amazed you made it here to the fediverse.

We had agreed as a society that certain things should not be visible to children until they grow up.

Do you have evidence the systems we employed to do this actually didn't make problems worse? As far as I can see, it is also just overly righteous adults desperate to fix the world in ways that don't make them look inwards and question the policies they support and the beliefs they hold.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I missed a comma before "algorithms" it seems.

The kind of "extreme authoritarianism" you're pearl clutching about is literally the age ratings system that was in place in the late 90s. Get a grip.