Research into online misogyny and image-based abuse

Who is Andrew Tate?

Andrew Tate is social media influencer, kickboxer and self-proclaimed misogynist. He rose to popularity in 2022, offering his followers motivational messages around fitness, making money and attracting women. His views on gender are simplistic in that men should provide and women should submit.

On the topic of women, Tate describes them as property. He also has a history of physically assaulting women and victim-blaming.

How well-known is Andrew Tate?

81% of parents are aware of Andrew Tate compared to only 59% of children. However, older children — especially boys — show more awareness than younger children, with 75% of 15-16-year-olds saying they’re aware of Andrew Tate.

What do parents and children think of Tate?

Nearly a quarter (23%) of 15-16-year-old boys have a positive view of Andrew Tate compared to only 10% of girls at this age.

Furthermore, one-third of dads (32%) view Andrew Tate favourably compared to 10% of mums. This positive view is even higher among young dads: 52% of 25-34-year-old dads compared to 19% of mums.

Additionally, 49% of 25-34-year-old dads believe their child has a positive view of Andrew Tate.

When surveyed, children said they believed the internet made misogyny worse. Similar numbers of 15-16-year-old boys and girls agreed.

However, parents of boys are more likely that parents of girls to believe people exaggerate how common misogyny is (35% vs. 23%). Additionally, parents of boys are more likely to say online misogyny isn’t a problem.

Generally, there is low awareness of the term ‘misogyny’ with 46% of 15-16-year-olds having little to no understanding.

Those children (especially younger kids) who do know what misogyny is tend to learn it from a parent. However, older children say they learned about the term online.

What do teens think of sharing nudes?

The majority of 13-16-year-olds (81%) think that sharing nudes is always harmful. Additionally, 51% don’t think that adults worry too much about this kind of image-sharing. 84% also think that social media platforms should do more to stop this kind of image-sharing among peers.

Parents’ concerns

70% of parents worry about children sharing nudes with 87% wanting social media platforms to take more preventative action. The same percentage (87%) would also like schools to teach about the risks of taking and sharing nudes.

While few teens have direct experience with image-based abuse, nearly half heard about someone else experiencing it.

Children who are vulnerable are more likely to experience this type of online harm compared to those who are not vulnerable. They also feel more pressure to share nude images online.