Table of Contents
Teachers claim boys as young as 11 are ‘idolising’ Andrew Tate and warn agaisnt a rise ‘misogynistic ideology’ surging in the classroom.
The worrying concerns have been blamed on ‘toxic’ social media influencers like self-confessed misogynist Tate, who has been accused of rape and human trafficking.
Tate, who was recently freed from home arrest in Romania amid sex trafficking claims – which he denies – has an army of followers, with many fans being young men or teenage boys.
Teachers in Edinburgh say their male pupils have Tate as their wallpaper on school-issued iPads.
They also report an increase of ‘sexist behaviour’ where boys ‘belittle’ female peers and use sexualised language towards female teachers
One high school teacher told Edinburgh Live: ‘Today I was called a f****** b**** by a 12-year-old. That has become more common to be sworn at. There are incidents of older boys calling female members of staff ‘s***’ and ‘f****** c***’.
Another secondary teacher said: ‘There is a notable level of disrespect shown to female teachers compared to male counterparts. It’s frustrating when you call upon a male colleague and you get a completely different response [from students].’
It comes as the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) found that, according to 51 per cent of their branches in 2023, boys were more likely to exhibit ‘violent and aggressive’ behaviour towards women teachers than men teachers.
The worrying concerns have been blamed on ‘toxic’ social media influencers like self-confessed misogynist Tate, who has been accused of rape and human trafficking
Schools are set to give students anti-misogyny lessons in the wake of hit Netflix TV show Adolescence about a teen boy (pictured) who murders a female classmate. Pictured: Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence
It comes as the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) found that, according to 51 per cent of their branches in 2023, boys were more likely to exhibit ‘violent and aggressive’ behaviour towards women teachers than men teachers
In the same year, 40 per cent of branches said that prejudice-based violence had increased.
Alison Murphy, secretary for Edinburgh EIS, desrcibed it as “major issue in schools” and urged that curriculums need change to equip young people in digital literacy.
Tate, the 38-year-old former professional kickboxer who grew up in Luton as a boy and is now living in America with his brother Tristan, came to public attention when he was booted off the reality show Big Brother in 2016.
He likes to pose with a cigar in front of flash cars and private jets, and often dispenses dubious advice to young men.
But it is Tate’s extreme misogyny which has gained him notoriety, prompting fears that boys and young men are being radicalised by his views.
Tate has previously said women are partly responsible for being raped and that they ‘belong’ to men.
And his influence is increasingly being felt in schools, with boys reportedly being more sexually aggressive, pinning girls to the walls to kiss them or taking their girlfriend’s phones to control them.
The news comes in the wake of the gripping Netflix drama Adolescence, in which a 13-year-old boy stabs his female classmate to death for not liking him after viewing such harmful misogynistic content online.
The four-part miniseries, which landed on the streaming platform on Thursday, follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is accused of stabbing his classmate Katie (Emilia Holliday) to death
Stephen Graham, who stars as Jamie’s father Eddie, co-wrote the show with Jack Thorne and told Sky News the story was inspired by the rise in attacks carried out by incels (males who are involuntary celibate)
The four-part series, starring Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters, has now sparked a fierce debate on whether enough is being done to tackle the ‘lethal’ online content children are being exposed to.
Andrew Tate is mentioned in the second episode when DI Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and DS Misha Frank (Faye Marsay) are speaking to a teacher at Jamie’s school Mrs Fenumore (Jo Hartley).
After speaking to his son Adam, who attends the same school, DI Bascombe tells DS Frank and Mrs Fenumore they misinterpreted some Instagram posts made by victim Katie as he now believes she was bullying Jamie over ‘incel stuff’.
When the teacher is left confused by the word, DS Frank steps in to clarify, saying: ‘It’s the involuntary celibate stuff. It’s the Andrew Tate sh**e.’
‘What we have seen in Adolescence isn’t fiction, it’s a reality,’ said education expert Michael Conroy, who is the founder and director of Men At Work. ‘The risk of lethality is already there.’
Mr Conroy, whose firm trains childcare professionals how to combat sexism in boys, said teachers were increasingly facing ‘horrifying’ misogynistic abuse at the hands of young male pupils.
The 57-year-old, who was previously a teacher for 16 years, said children were being inadvertently sucked into the online ‘manosphere’ culture while on social media.
Manosphere is a term for websites, social media influencers and blogs that promote masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism, with supporters of the movement insisting women are to blame for all the challenges faced by men.
Adolescence stars Stephen Graham (left) as the father of troubled teen Jamie who is accused of murdering a 13-year-old girl in an attack inspired by the misogynistic ‘manosphere’
‘Netflix’s Adolescence isn’t fiction, it’s reality’, education experts have warned. Pictured is Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston as she is confronted by troubled teen Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper)
He said he had come across ‘dozens of experiences’ of female teachers being told by boys as young as 11 ‘your opinion doesn’t matter because you’re a woman’ or storming out of lessons yelling ‘I don’t need to listen to you, you’re a woman!’.#
Laying the blame on ‘toxic’ social media influencers like self-confessed misogynist Andrew Tate, Dr Patrick Roach of teaching union NASUWT told MailOnline: ‘Children’s safety, and the safety and wellbeing of teachers, is being jeopardised by the actions of misogynist online influencers.’
Teachers said they had been threatened with rape, asked for nude photos, physically intimidated, and having their classes disturbed by young male students moaning sexually during class – even in primary school, a survey of Australian teachers found.
Australian researchers added that ‘while sexual harassment in schools isn’t a new problem… teachers are now describing something different: an escalating culture not only of sexual harassment, but of language and behaviours expressing belief in male superiority and other misogynistic views’.
In the UK, dozens of children have already been referred to the anti-terror scheme, Prevent.
Between March 2023 and 2024, at least 162 children were referred to the programme over ‘school massacre’ concerns.
While 54 were sent to it for expressing support for the incel movement, a term for men who are involuntary celibate, and who blame women for this.
The situation comes amid broader concerns about the number of young Britons accessing sickeningly violent material online, which has increased in recent years.
According to research by communication regulator Ofcom, nine per cent of internet users aged 13 to 17 had seen content depicting or encouraging violence or injury.
While in June 2024, 68 per cent of users aged 13 and over said they had encountered at least one potential harm in the past four weeks, the same proportion as reported in June 2023 and in January 2024.
Teachers in the UK have increasingly reported problems with misogynistic pupils and violent pupils, teacher’s union the NASUWT said.
The Government is already taking action to stamp out violence against girls and women and has issued guidance to educators on how to recognise and tackle signs of ‘incel ideology’ in young boys.
And the Online Safety Act is now forcing social media platforms to remove content where it is illegal, including violent material and content promoting stalking, extreme pornography, revenge porn, and controlling or coercive behaviour.
Speaking to MailOnline, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: ‘I’ve heard first-hand from teachers that the rise of dangerous influencers is prompting a crisis in the radicalisation of young boys – which is why our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade is so vital.
‘These vile, misogynistic views are not innate, they are learned, so through our review of the relationships, sex and health curriculum we’ll be taking robust action to better help young people understand healthy relationships, consent and misogyny, and have produced a new guide for teachers on recognising the signs and intervening early on incel ideologies.
‘But this behaviour is not limited to the classroom; the evidence is increasingly clear that we shouldn’t be allowing children unrestricted access to harmful content, which is why we are bringing in much wider protection for children with the Online Safety Act.’
Tate and his brother Tristan, 36, who have dual British and American citizenship, are both currently under investigation in Romania accused of human trafficking with Tate also accused of raping one of his victims.
Tate and his brother Tristan, 36, who have dual British and American citizenship, are both currently under investigation in Romania accused of human trafficking with Tate also accused of raping one of his victims (the Tate brothers are pictured above following a court appearance in Bucharest in January)
However, they were allowed to flee to Florida last week after the Trump administration, which is heavily supported by the Tates, pressured the Romanian government to lift travel restrictions imposed on the pair.
Both brothers were placed under criminal investigation in Florida just days after arriving in the US whilst Tate also faces multiple separate rape and human trafficking allegations in the UK.
Having been arrested in Romania in December 2022, the brothers were charged the following June, accused of tricking seven women into sexual exploitation on fake promises of a relationship or marriage – a technique authorities have dubbed the ‘loverboy method’.
In July last year, Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, national lead for policing violence against women and girls, said ‘toxic’ misogynist Tate’s influence on young boys online was ‘quite terrifying’.
A report published last summer revealed police recorded more than a million crimes against women and girls in 2022/23 – accounting for almost a fifth of all offences excluding fraud – leading bosses to label the crisis a ‘national emergency’.
Police records of violence against women and girls incidents have increased by 37 per cent in just five years, the report from the National Police Chiefs’ Council found.
In October last year, The Mail revealed the Home Office is considering allowing teachers to report misogynistic comments to the government’s Prevent programme, which was set up to combat Islamic extremists.
