Cyber expert laments “lost generation” in online misogyny panel

One of Australia’s foremost cybersecurity experts has lamented a “lost generation” of young people during an FW panel about modern misogyny, the ‘manosphere’ and the internet. Alastair MacGibbon also slammed tech companies’ claims they’re unable to remove extreme content from their platforms as “absolute garbage”.

“These young people are exposed to really dangerous stuff [and] we’ve allowed things to get away from us. We’ve allowed ourselves to lose this generation,” said the CyberCX Chief Strategy Officer and former Australian Federal Police agent in the FW Presents webinar on how to tackle modern misogyny. “I spent my whole career dealing with badness in all forms of society, but we have created this fractured kaleidoscope of toxicity that we either address now or will regret not doing.”

MacGibbon’s remarks follow growing concerns about a spike in regressive gender attitudes among young men consuming content from the manosphere, where ‘manfluencers’ like Andrew Tate promote harmful and rigid gender stereotypes. International Ipsos research published in 2024 found that 27 percent of generation Z men believe gender equality has gone too far, compared to 19 percent across the general population.

Dr Stephanie Wescott, a feminist researcher and lecturer at Monash University whose work examines the impact of the manosphere on young people, suspects the Covid-19 lockdowns exacerbated the problem by increasing their screen time while removing the opportunity for views to be “moderated and critically examined by peers, but also teachers”.

“What we’d see more of online [is] things that are offensive, things that are designed to provoke a very strong emotional response.”

“What we believe young people [especially boys] were seeing was a version of interacting with girls and women – and a way of understanding themselves and girls and women – that was deeply, deeply misogynistic. It was instructional. It was how to be this type of man and how to treat women in this kind of way,” said Dr Wescott.

She also warned parents that online content can often look harmless to start with and gradually become more sinister. “We know how algorithms work. Some of [the manosphere content] can seem [like] quite innocuous self-improvement type content,” she said. “[But then] what we’d see more of online [is] things that are offensive, things that are volatile, things designed to provoke a very strong emotional response. We know that’s what’s more likely to keep people online for longer.” 

MacGibbon also raised concerns that steps to keep young people offline – including a 2024 federal government ban on children under 16 accessing social media which is due to come into effect late this year – are being implemented too late.

“The chance of actually putting some form of social protective norms around the behaviors of people has actually diminished over [the last] decade, even though legislation has increased and the expectations have gone up,” he said. “We’re in an era where tech companies are increasingly flexing their muscles and refusing to do what’s right by people who are being harmed.” 

“We’ve given them a portal to badness, and we’re reaping what we sow.”

Considering solutions, Dr Wescott impressed the importance of classrooms for “fostering open discussions about gendered experiences”. “Classrooms are and will always be a place where we have difficult and contentious conversations,” she said. “In my previous role as an English teacher we would talk these things through.”

However, MacGibbon warned against leaving the bulk of the heavy lifting to schools. “[When] I was the newly minted eSafety Commissioner […] every educator I would speak to would tell me, ‘I don’t think you understand how crowded our curriculum is and how everyone wants every single one of their issues to be put in there as the priority.” 

“It’s the job of the community. It’s the job of parents and carers who, frankly, have abrogated their responsibility.,” he said. “So while I respect it being put into curricula, we’ve abrogated our responsibility by giving kids tech and thinking they’re looked after. And we’ve done the exact opposite – we’ve given them a portal to badness, and we’re reaping what we sow.” 

Dr Wescott advised concerned parents or loved ones to approach conversations about social media and the internet gently, with curiosity and empathy. 

“Ask young people what they think may be helpful,” she said. “‘What’s concerning you? Are you seeing things online that are making you feel unsafe or angry or afraid? Let’s talk about them.’ Often our instinct as adults is to come at these issues from a [protectionist] role, whereas we actually need to be co-creating solutions. To understand its role but also what they want from social media. They’re trying to figure this out too and they’re as powerless as we are with the big tech companies.”