'Adolescence': How young men are being radicalised by social media

Four-part British drama 'Adolescence' debuted last week on Netflix to wide-spread acclaim. It follows the events after a 13-year-old boy murders a girl in his school year. Each episode is a one-take insight into different aspects of the murder’s fall-out: from the initial arrest, to the investigation at a school, a psychological assessment of the boy, and his parents’ response.

Hanging over the drama is the question of how a culture of toxic masculinity has led to the tragedy. Particularly in the school episode, the influence of male content creators like Andrew Tate on young boys is highlighted as a dangerous radicalising force in British society.

Writers and co-creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham have said they want the show to create real change in society. “I want it to be shown in schools, I want it to be shown in parliament. It's crucial because this is only going to get worse,” Thorne said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that he watched the show with his 16-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter. Asked if he backed ‘Adolescence’ being broadcast in parliament and in schools, he said: “It's a very good drama to watch. This violence carried out by young men, influenced by what they see online, is a real problem. It’s abhorrent and we have to tackle it.”

Knife crime against women

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that knife crime is increasing in England and Wales, up 4.4% last year. Sharp instruments were used in 41% of homicides during the year ending March 2024.

Rape and sexual assault were the two categories that showed the highest increase of knife-related crime in the past four years. In that time, there was a percentage reduction in knife crime related to attempted murder and robbery, but a 16.7% increase for rape.

Although rape and sexual assault victims can be any gender, they are crimes that predominantly target women. Last year's figures revealed that the number of women killed, injured or threatened with a knife more than doubled in a five-year period.

In 2023, 16-year-old trans teenager Brianna Ghey was murdered by two of her school peers. The two perpetrators were both sentenced to life imprisonment last year, with the court deciding they were primarily motivated by sadistic tendencies and secondarily by their hatred against transgender people.

‘Adolescence’ lays bare the role that toxic masculinity influencers online have in radicalising men and young boys to hate women.

“This is a show about a kid who does the wrong thing and causes great harm. To understand him, we have to understand the pressures upon him,” Thorne continued. “Jamie has been polluted by ideas that he's heard online, that make sense to him, that have a logic that's attractive to him, that answer the questions as to his loneliness and isolation and lead him to make some very bad choices.”

“We have to understand the things he's been consuming and that means especially looking at the internet, the manosphere and incel culture,” said Thorne.

The manosphere refers to an online subculture where men discuss misogynist theories in a reaction to feminism. These online spaces are frequently used by self-described incels, or involuntary celibate, who claim that due to women’s expectations, they are unable to find sexual partners. The young murderer depicted in ‘Adolescence’ is a part of these spaces.

Incel influencers

In the manosphere, the most famous influencer is Andrew Tate. The 38-year-old British-American influencer rose to prominence in the last few years for his viral content that promoted misogynist views. “I'm a realist and when you're a realist, you're sexist. There's no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist,” he said in an interview.

Alongside other manosphere influencers like Jordan Peterson and Hamza Ahmed, Tate has radicalised a large proportion of young men to believe that the key to success is to reject feminist values of equality.

British musician Sam Fender said he wasn’t surprised that “all the young lads are seduced by demagogues like Andrew Tate.”

“They’re being shamed all the time and made to feel like they’re a problem. It’s this narrative being told to white boys from nowhere towns,” the ‘17 Going Under’ singer said.

Tate, alongside his brother Tristan, was arrested in Romania in 2022 and formally indicted on charges of participating in a criminal ring in which women were lured into the country to be then exploited.

The brothers are also facing an additional civil suit from an American woman who claims they coerced her into sex work, as well as charges of human trafficking and rape in the UK. Both men deny all claims.

Despite these charges, the Tate brothers fled to the US in January when a Romanian appeals court returned their case to prosecutors. The brothers have US citizenship and both supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last year.

It’s not clear if Trump’s administration played a role in the duo escaping their travel ban. It is known that Richard Grenell, Trump’s special envoy, raised them as an issue to Romania's Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu.

Trump himself has denied knowing Tate, but they have been brought up by both Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. Similarly, last year UK anti-immigration politician Nigel Farage called Tate an “important voice” for boys.

Gendered political divides

This alignment between manosphere and right-wing figures might be compounding increasing political divides between men and women. Research last year found that Gen Z is divided on politics by gender in a way previous generations haven’t been.

British Gen Z men are 25% more right wing than women. In the US, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30% more liberal than men the same age. There’s a similar sized political gap between German men and women.

This trend was first discovered in South Korea, as a gendered political divide over the past decade has seen society increasingly segregated. Both the marriage and birth rate in South Korea have dropped significantly, falling in line with the views of the manosphere.

If influencers like Tate are responsible for the chasm riven between genders, it is through the susceptibility of young men to their misogynist content on social media.

Australia has taken one of the biggest steps to tackle the danger of social media to teenagers. Its government approved legislation to ban children under 16 from using social media late last year.

UK politicians have suggested following suit. For now, the country is set to implement the Online Safety Act (OSA), a new set of laws aimed at protecting children and adults online. It is intended to stop young people accessing harmful content, however before its implementation it has been criticised for not sufficiently targeting tech companies that host potentially radicalising content.