Editorial: Tech giants need to take responsibility
Society is rarely immune from what happens online. Unfortunately it seems some of the more extreme and disturbing misogynistic views are seeping into everyday life in Ireland now.
This week Ireland’s largest domestic violence service provider has issued a stark warning that toxic misogyny spread online through what is known as ‘the manosphere’ is showing up more and more in frontline domestic violence services. This includes children echoing language and behaviours associated with misogynistic influencers. Sonas stated that their staff are seeing “worrying examples of boys repeating extreme views about women, displaying hostility towards mothers and normalising controlling and degrading behaviour in the home.
“In one case, a child supported by Sonas repeatedly called his mother a ‘dish pig’ and threw objects at her when he disliked his dinner. The charity says such incidents reflect a growing concern that online misogynistic content is shaping attitudes towards women among children and young men.”
It’s terrible to think that kids should show such a desperately retrograde and violent attitude to their own mothers and it’s totally unacceptable.
“Violence breeds violence and disrespect breeds disrespect,” said Fiona O’Malley, CEO of Sonas Domestic Violence Charity. “When children grow up in homes affected by domestic abuse, they are already vulnerable to normalising harmful behaviour. But when those messages are reinforced online by misogynistic influencers telling boys that women are inferior, manipulative or deserving of contempt, the consequences can be devastating. We are now seeing some children echo language, attitudes and ideas that are strikingly similar to content popularised by figures associated with the manosphere, including Andrew Tate. That should concern every parent, school and policymaker in Ireland.”
Coimisiún na Meán is Ireland’s media regulator and according to their website, it’s “Ireland's agency for developing and regulating a thriving, diverse, creative, safe and trusted media landscape”.
Sonas is calling on Coimisiún na Meán to require social media platforms operating in Ireland to restrict, de-amplify and age-gate misogynistic influencer content that promotes violence, coercive control or hatred of women.
The charity said this would be consistent with Ireland’s existing online safety framework, which already seeks to protect children from harmful content and places obligations on video-sharing platforms to reduce exposure to material that may harm the physical, mental or moral development of children. The charity is not calling for a blanket ban on discussion around masculinity or relationships online. Instead, it is calling for targeted safeguards against content that glamorises coercive control, dehumanises women or encourages hostility towards them. That seems a very fair approach to me but can Ireland make the tech giants face their responsibilities? It’s very unlikely unfortunately.