When the APPG on Men and Boys was started a few years ago, even the notion that we should be discussing the problems facing men and boys was seen by some as rather a niche spectator sport. However, the APPG persisted. The outcome of its inquiries drew serious attention from Parliamentarians and others.

Sam Rushworth MP, APPG, co-chair, said “That pace has increased again during this current Parliament. There has been a broadening of that interest too, especially around the role of fathers and the related issues of paternity pay and parental leave. Mental health and suicide, prostate cancer and the impact of the NEET crisis on young men have all been added to the list of concerns. The Men’s Health Strategy has moved matters on further still. On the whole, this has taken place with cross-party support and a consensus from all sides of the House that we can no longer ignore these issues. The number of men and boys’ policy events happening at all the party conferences is testimony of this too.”

Mims Davies MP, APPG Co-Chair, said: “One area that has not had this salience though, is the impact and targeting of online harms on young men and boys, because they are young men and boys. The debate and need for solutions on the clear online harms of misogyny, pornography and violence against women and girls have rightly come to the fore. Ofcom issued guidance to tech companies on addressing those harms as the Online Safety Act 2023 compelled it to do.”

Mark Brooks, Secretary to the APPG, said: “However, the same is not true for young men and boys, despite the emerging evidence and growing awareness of the type of online harms affecting them. Recognition has been fuelled by Netflix’s Adolescence drama through to the Louis Theroux’ Inside the Manosphere documentary and the Sir Gareth Southgate Changing the Game for Young Men documentaries. Disappointingly, Ofcom has also said it has no plans to bring in parallel guidance for men and boys as referenced above.  

“This is why the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Men and Boys’ Issues, which we co-Chair, has opened an inquiry into understanding and acting upon the specific online harms impacting directly on young men and boys. We are holding four evidence-sessions with the UK’s leading experts over the autumn and are looking at four specific areas.”

This week (8 September) we start with a session on body image and looksmaxxing with experts from the universities of Birmingham and Worcester, alongside the Centre for Young Lives. Further into this Parliamentary term, we are holding sessions on gambling/cryptocurrency; pornography and sextortion; and misogynistic content. On the latter and similarly with pornography, the inquiry is looking at the direct and specific impact on young men and boys.

Some of the emerging facts are startling. For example, 91% of sextortion victims are male, 53% of boys see gambling adverts every week and 26% of boys have said that images on social media have caused them to worry about their body image. According to Ofcom in 2025, boys aged 11-17 saw on average 4.28 of 9 types of different online harms over a four-week period (3.9 for girls).

It is why we feel the time is right for Parliamentarians to take a proper look under the bonnet and see how online harms are specifically impacting and also targeting young men and boys because they are young men and boys. It is no algorithmic ‘accident’ that their feeds feature unrequested gambling adverts, influencers peddling steroid use and crypto schemes, alongside pornography and social media posts with violent content. The recent events and tragic deaths of seven people including two police officers in Middlesbrough, is a stark reminder of social media can purposely encourage young men and boys to engage in dangerous and reckless behaviour.

In the post-pandemic era, there has been rising public and policy concern about the impact of social media and online spaces on young people, with a recognition of the distinct harms affecting men and boys. Despite increased attention, there is a significant policy gap in understanding the range and complexity of these issues. Many online communities and influencers promote overlapping narratives across different areas. Gaining a better understanding of the scope of these harms, how they interact with one another, and why they resonate, is essential to developing effective policy responses.

Notes to Editors

Contact our secretariat at contact@menandboys.org.uk for more information and also the webpage at https://www.menandboys.org.uk/appg-men-and-boys

Information will of course be available on All-Party Parliamentary Group notice board.

Contact: Secretariat - Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys c/o Contact@menandboys.org.uk, 07834 452357 and https://www.menandboys.org.uk/appg-men-and-boys

Terms of Reference (Online Harms Review)

(A) Objective

To produce a report based on the evidence from a range of UK experts on key harms affecting young men and boys and the linkages with wider harms.

(B) Background

In the post-pandemic era there has been rising public and policy concern about online harms affecting young people with an initial gender focus on the impact on young women and girls.

This included the harms caused to them due to the consumption of malign online content by men and boys -particularly misogynistic “manosphere” and pornographic content. This gave additional impetus to the Online Safety Act (2023) and the inclusion in the legislation of the need for OfCom to produce guidance for tech platforms on how to mitigate such harm. The latter was published in November 2025 after an open consultation.

Following on from the (i) political mainstreaming and non-zero sum thinking of the need to address problems men and boys face (ii) the broadcast of Adolescence (iii) additional impetus from Louis Theroux’s manosphere documentary – there is a growing recognition of the need to start acknowledging, understanding and addressing the online harms affecting young men and boys in particular.

However, there is a policy gap in understanding those online harms as a whole and in particular areas including gambling, crypto, body image/looksmaxxing and pornography/sextortion and misogyny.

Members

Co-Chairs: Mims Davies MP and Sam Rushworth MP

Officers: Lord Michael Farmer and Baroness Margaret Eaton

Full Membership

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