.png)
5 hours ago
1
The disturbing account from a 15‑year‑old girl describing the misogyny she faces online (I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day, 23 February) will come as no surprise to those of us working to safeguard young people’s mental health. The scale of harmful content in online worlds is deeply concerning. The author has been brave in shining a light on her experiences, and many young people today are exposed to misogyny and hatred in ways that are difficult for those who are not digital natives to fully understand.
Yet it is also important to recognise that the online world is not wholly negative, since for many young people it offers connection, solidarity, creativity and meaningful support. Any policy response must protect access to these positive spaces, not cut young people off from them.
A social media ban for under‑16s, while well-intentioned, cannot fix the underlying problem that platforms are designed in ways that allow misogyny, harassment and hate to spread unchecked, often pushing such content towards users who have never sought it out. Delaying access without addressing these design flaws means young people will eventually enter environments that remain unsafe.
If an age limit is introduced, it must form part of a wider package of measures, including stronger regulation, clear expectations around platform design, transparency about algorithms, and meaningful accountability when platforms fail to protect their users.
Equally important is recognising that young people are experts in their own digital lives.
If we are serious about addressing mental health challenges among young people, we must include them in the discussion and demand far greater responsibility from the platforms that shape their lives.
Alexa Knight
Director of policy and influencing, Mental Health Foundation
As a male psychotherapist, this article confirmed strongly what I see in my work. Apart from my concern for girls subjected to this environment and its impact on their self-image and perception of boys, I am also concerned about what is happening to the boys. With the rise of single-parent families, 25% of all families with dependent children in the UK, predominantly led by women, it seems probable that such a family group will lack a consistent male presence. In such an environment, how does the boy find a positive model for his development?
We must recognise how a single-gender family leaves boys with no consistent male model. This leaves them exposed to the malign influences of misogynistic online and cultural influencers, who promote an exciting but toxic image of masculinity.
We need more emphasis on finding the positive in men, alongside the proper concern for the damage done to the girls.
Dr Ralph Holtom
Psychoanalytic psychotherapist, Colchester
As an aunt of three teenage women (and two teenage men) as well as a social worker with 30 years’ experience, I am appalled at the lack of intervention by politicians and social media firms to protect young people from the hostility that pervades social media. This is exacerbated by the depletion of youth clubs and community resources for young people. We owe it to the current generation of teenagers to put this right before further harm is done.
Rebecca Solway
Old Trafford, Manchester
I wholeheartedly agree with a ban on social media for under-16s. I have already implemented one in my own household. My daughter, 14, and my son, 12, do not have any social media accounts of their own and my daughter’s phone does not have mobile data or any social media apps on it. Her Google account is still set to child permissions so she can’t install any apps without my knowledge. My son watches YouTube videos with my account so that I can see everything in the history and can filter out channels as needed.
They have no need for TikTok or Snapchat or Facebook or Instagram. They can talk to their friends through texts or over the phone. And I have talked to them both at length about the toxicity lurking online, as every parent should be doing with their own teens.
I implore all women and girls online not to take the words of misogynists to heart. Destroying your self-worth is their goal, because a girl who feels worthless is easier to control. When they accuse women of treating promiscuity like a competition, they are projecting. When they criticise a girl’s looks, they are gaslighting. They want you to hate yourself because they hate themselves, and the only control they can exert in their lives is control over women. Do not let them control you. Do not let them define you. You decide your own worth and you have your whole life ahead of you, so stand tall and be unstoppable.
Rachel Spires
Garland, Texas, US
I am a 96-year-old female who cannot thank you enough for the opinion piece. I wish I could say that the misogyny the writer is experiencing online is a new phenomenon. The language in which it is expressed online is new, but the fear and hatred of girls and women that she and her peers are being exposed to 24/7 is as old as the hills. What I find so shocking is that it has taken a 15-year-old girl to break the silence about the hostile online depiction of half of the human species. That she has had the courage to do what we, her elders, have failed to do is utterly amazing.
Jane Roland Martin
Emerita professor of philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Boston, US
