I know, you’ve heard it all before. But this isn’t yet another article denouncing social media as the root of all evil. In fact, it rarely is. New research, commissioned by London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and conducted by Shout Out UK in partnership with M&C Saatchi World Services and Nisien.AI, has identified how the digital world exploits pre-existing social vulnerabilities and the danger this poses to young people in the UK.
Let’s look at some of the highlights from the Social Media and Offline Violence report.
Knife Crime
Social media apps have the power to turbocharge real-life harms, increasing their scale and reach.
This is particularly true of interpersonal violence — the intentional use of force, power or threats against a certain person or group — occurring in our schools. When a dispute arises between two pupils, online discourse about the incident often draws other students into the argument, even if they didn’t witness it firsthand. Suddenly, a private disagreement becomes public. A vicious cycle of nasty comments sustains the conflict over a period of months and even years, making it more difficult for the young people involved to disengage without being labelled as ‘soft.’ Some will even feel so threatened that they begin carrying weapons. Eventually, the simmering tension may culminate in a physical altercation between the two warring groups of students. Not only is there the risk of being injured or worse, but the incident also leaves those involved with psychological scars and anxiety around possible future retaliation.
So, what started as an argument between two individuals gradually escalated to a conflict involving a whole cohort of students, having been fuelled by social media. Furthermore, the digital world’s endless reach means that fights are now breaking out between groups of young people across different institutions. Harmful posts, pitting London schools against each other, began circulating on TikTok in February. One video urged young people in Years 7-11 from Redbridge to ‘be violent’ towards their ‘opp[s].’ Another, featuring illustrations of knives and compasses, told Hackney kids to ‘bring [their] best’ weapons to the fight. You would hope that most kids either report or ignore these kinds of posts, and while this is still largely the case, for some children, disengaging from the content can be difficult. The report found that neurodivergent pupils, particularly those with autism, are amongst those most vulnerable to social media harm as they are prone to literal interpretations of the content that they consume.
Data from the Met on incidents involving knives at schools shows that those between the ages of 1-17 are exponentially more likely to be both the suspects and victims in these cases than any other age group. The same report, published in 2023, also states that most incidents involved students who attended the same school or were acquaintances. Fast forward to 2026. Despite a steady decrease of 4 per cent from 2020, knife crime remains a critical concern within the capital and beyond. The Red vs Blue school wars trend continues to be monitored by the Met police.
Manosphere
Falling down misogynistic rabbit holes. Dangerous content disguised as ‘self-help’ and ‘self-improvement.’
Though outbursts of violence as a result of social media posts are thankfully rare, online sexism remains an everyday occurrence. Part of the problem is the rise of the online manosphere. Manosphere content dominates young people’s For You pages, cleverly masquerading as a form of ‘self-improvement.’ Interested in fitness? Learn how to get killer abs with HED Fitness. Want to be a multi-millionaire? Sign up to The Real World for just $99 a month. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll discover that The Real World is run by the infamous Andrew Tate. Yes, the cigar-smoking, Bugatti-riding, self-proclaimed misogynist whose toxic messages have worryingly found resonance with British boys. Tate rose to fame by making provocative statements online. He claims to champion those who are looking to ‘escape the Matrix,’ a phrase coined by incel conspiracy theorists that suggests the world is unfairly rigged against young men.
His views on women can only be described as disturbing. In one video, in which he imagines how he’d react if he found out his girlfriend had been unfaithful, Tate says: ‘It’s bang out with the machete, boom in her face, grip her by the neck, shut up b***h.’ In subsequent posts, he asserts that he doesn’t want ‘my chicks talking to other dudes’ and tells rape victims to ‘bear responsibility’ for their attackers’ behaviour. Police have recently reopened an investigation from 2014 into alleged incidents of sexual violence, which Tate denies.
But Tate is hardly the only person on the internet peddling misogynistic rhetoric. HED Fitness founder Harrison Sullivan (a.k.a. HStikkytokky) appeared on Louis Theroux’s documentary ‘Inside the Manosphere’ last month. He apparently teaches boys how to be ‘proper guys’ by promoting dodgy financial ventures and repeatedly putting women down. Plus, with the rise of ‘tradwife’ influencers and the ‘womanosphere,’ female content creators are earning their fortunes by telling girls to get back in the kitchen. Children and teens who start out watching innocent fitness routines or cooking videos inexplicably find themselves falling down misogynistic rabbit holes.
If you think online content has little impact on young people’s behaviour, think again. Nearly a third of male Gen Zers agree that wives should always obey their husbands, and a similar number believe that men should have the final say when making decisions that affect both people in the marriage. Denying your wife the right to be a part of decision-making isn’t the foundation of an equal relationship; it’s coercion — a form of domestic abuse. But manosphere influencers have normalised the idea that men have a right to dominate women. They portray violence as an acceptable form of control and sex as something they are entitled to without their partner’s consent. In fact, a 26-year-old who raped and murdered his ex-girlfriend alongside her mother and sister in 2024 watched Tate videos just hours before committing the attack. Additionally, a recent police report finds a higher percentage of domestic abuse victims amongst those aged 16-19 in the year ending March 2025, compared to those aged 25 or older.
This has been a grave concern for the national policing lead for domestic abuse, Louisa Rolfe: ‘We see the connection between [abusive relationships amongst teenagers] and … toxic influencers online and their … views that are promoted about women and women’s status in society.’
With PSHE woefully ill-equipped to battle the rising tide of social media sexism, a large number of boys are getting relationship advice from incels. Is it any wonder, then, that the government has been forced to declare violence against women and girls an ‘epidemic’?
Image-Based Abuse
The normalisation of violent and harmful content amongst the youth.
The report identified over 25,000 misogynistic posts on X, 45 per cent of which were originally authored. This shows that social media misogyny isn’t entirely influencer-driven. Ordinary young men are increasingly internalising misogynistic behaviour and actively contributing to the humiliation of women. The result is a hostile environment for girls, both digitally and in the real world.
A 2025 report by Ofcom found that 34 per cent of girls in the UK experienced hurtful interactions online, compared with 28 per cent of boys. This behaviour has undoubtedly begun to manifest itself in the classroom. From making belittling remarks at female teachers to ranking classmates based on their looks, gender-based aggression as social currency is rife in schools. That’s before you even take into consideration one of the vilest forms of sexualisation amongst young people: image-based abuse. Often involving male students taking intimate photos of their girlfriends without their knowledge, image-based abuse can also refer to a young person being blackmailed into sharing nudes with online predators or criminal gangs.
With platforms like Snapchat, there is literally no end to the possibilities of disseminating sensitive images. Perhaps that’s why 400,000 UK children aged 13-16 experienced image-based abuse in 2023, while cases of child sextortion doubled between 2024 and 2025. Now, with Grok’s ability to generate sexualised images, the number of cases of image-based abuse will keep rising. Whilst male perpetrators can move on after the fallout, these incidents often have a lifelong psychological effect on girls. Victims of image-based abuse may face years of bullying and humiliation at school, which could impact their academic performance. As adults, they can find relationships difficult, with trust issues cropping up. Additionally, a lack of support from teachers could undermine their faith in people of authority. This is particularly true for black girls, who are routinely dismissed or adultified at secondary school.
Keir Starmer has taken steps to reduce the spread of interpersonal violence and misogyny amongst young people by calling for ‘Adolescence’ (a TV series about a young boy being radicalised by incel culture) to be shown in schools and initiating The Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime. But this isn’t enough. A ban or significant restrictions on social media access for under-16s is a good place to start, giving children the opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills before being allowed to enter the Wild West of infinite scrolling. The PSHE curriculum must also evolve to cover manosphere content and teach students what healthy relationships look like. Finally, young people need role models and trusted adults in their lives. One key finding of the report is that children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds or those who have experienced family instability are more vulnerable to harmful online content. The absence of an informed, caring grown-up in a child’s life, someone with whom they can share their concerns and someone to challenge their views, leaves children exposed to online brainwashing.
And now we come to the main takeaway. While social media is not the cause of all of our woes, evidence shows that it does perpetuate existing gender inequalities and social prejudices amongst young people. No child should have to fear being knifed at school or anticipate a classmate using gen-AI to make a damaging deepfake of them. The government must carefully assess the scale of social media damage and create a proportional response that effectively protects children and young adults from the traps of digital rabbit holes.
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
