Saving the lost boys: the antidote to toxic male influencers

The lure of online misogyny and violence is damaging teenagers. A new group of youth centres is determined to turn the tide, discovers

- Maya Oppenheim

Inside a boxing ring 14 teenage boys and two youth workers sit side by side.

After placing their phones in front of them to ensure nobody is covertly recording, the boys say their names and ages. Welcome to “male empowerment”: a weekly session at a Wolverhampton youth centre run by the charity OnSide.

Each week the discussion focuses on one topic, and this week the theme is expectations. Jead Clarke, a 26-year-old senior youth worker who runs the sessions, asks the boys what comes to mind when they think of this word. What, he asks them, do they think society’s expectations are of men and boys?

“Treating women right,” one boy says. Being “respectful to your parents”, says another. The “expectation not to be weak”, “to get good grades” and “to be the provider”, say others.

Society is worried about young boys: “lost boys”, a report by the Centre for Social Justice called them earlier this year. Misogynistic influencers are just a swipe away on their phone screens, loneliness and disillusionment are rife, and surveys increasingly show them shifting ideologically to the right.