Study reveals Online Misogyny has become ‘Everyday Part of Childhood’

Online misogyny is becoming “constant, corrosive and deeply embedded” in the lives of young people across the UK, according to new research from Barnardo’s.

The charity polled 4,000 young people aged between 13 and 20 about their experiences online.

The findings revealed how abuse, harassment and toxic gender expectations are shaping young people’s daily lives both online and offline.

A quarter of girls surveyed said they had been called degrading names online, while more than half of boys believed they were expected to “act tough and not show emotion”.

The research also highlighted how online misogyny is spilling into real-world behaviour.

A quarter of all respondents said they had seen a nude image that was originally shared privately before being circulated more widely. Around one in seven 13- to 15-year-olds also said they had been asked to send nude images of themselves.

Nearly one in five girls reported receiving repeated messages after asking the sender to stop or after ignoring them.

At the same time, many boys said they felt unable to challenge sexist behaviour among their peers.

More than one in five boys said their friends would not support them if they called out sexist comments. A majority also admitted they feared being labelled “boring” if they refused to join in with misogynistic “banter”.

Eighteen-year-old Olly said: “As a young man, I see online misogyny every day.

“It sets the tone for how boys treat girls and how boys treat each other. There is pressure to laugh it off or stay silent, even when it crosses a line.

“Young men set the standard. Challenge it, shut it down, and back those who speak up. That is how we change what is accepted.”

Sarah, Children’s Services Manager for South West England, said:

“We’ve supported young girls who have had digitally manipulated (deepfake) images of them created and circulated online.

“The images were shared through social media platforms, sometimes via fake accounts created to spread the abuse further.

“Incidents like this cause significant emotional impact including fear and distress.

“A culture of victim-blaming can also lead to girls being concerned about how others perceive them, rather than seeing themselves as a victim of serious sexual abuse.

“This can sometimes leave them vulnerable to further abuse and exploitation, but with the right support, we do see girls begin to rebuild trust, confidence and find their voice.”

Lauren Spiers, Children’s Services Manager for Barnardo’s Northern Ireland, added:

“Girls tell us misogyny is difficult to escape. It shows up in classrooms, corridors, on buses and online and it’s often normalised or unchallenged.

“We’ve supported girls being subjected to repeated verbal abuse in PE, while others face daily intimidation just moving through school, with boys pushing past them or disregarding their boundaries in study spaces.

“We’re hearing about girls being followed and harassed in public, then feeling too unsafe to travel alone, and others avoiding parts of buses due to sexualised comments.

“Online, these attitudes are reinforced and amplified.”

The charity said nearly a third of its frontline practitioners reported seeing more children affected by misogynistic online content compared to the previous year. The same proportion also said they had witnessed an increase in child-on-child sexual abuse or harmful sexual behaviour among young people.

Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s, said: “Misogyny isn’t always loud or visible to many of us but these findings show how constant, corrosive and deeply embedded it is in the lives of young people today both on and offline.

“It shapes how boys and girls think about themselves, their worth and their relationships with others.”

“Young people are telling us that the result can be harmful on all sides, from humiliation and sexualised abuse to feelings of shame and isolation.

“This is not inevitable; it is learned and it can be challenged.

“That’s why we’re raising the alarm and we want young people’s experiences to be at the heart of conversations about how to tackle misogynistic content online.

“As a step in the right direction, we are calling on the government to turn Ofcom’s guidance for online services to improve the safety of women and girls online into a mandatory code of practice for tech companies to create safer digital platforms for all children and young people.”

Barnardo’s is now urging the Government to strengthen protections for children online by turning Ofcom’s Violence Against Women and Girls guidance into a mandatory Code of Practice for tech companies.

The charity said stronger accountability is needed to tackle misogynistic content and create safer digital spaces for young people.