Barnardo’s has published a report exploring the impact of online misogyny on children and young people’s attitudes and behaviours. The research aims to help ensure that children’s voices about misogyny and masculinity are heard. Using data from a survey of 4,000 young people aged 13-20-years-old across the UK, findings include:

• Around two thirds (65%) of young people report witnessing or coming across harmful gender expectations online. One in four girls (25%) report being called degrading names online, with over a third of 13‑year‑olds (34%) saying they have seen this happen to someone else.
• Nearly one in five girls (18%) report receiving repeated unwanted messages after asking the sender to stop or ignoring them.
• Just over one in seven young people aged 13–15 (15%) have been asked to send a nude image of themselves, and one in eight girls (12%) report being threatened with the sharing of nude images.
• A quarter of respondents (25%) report seeing nude images that were originally shared privately being redistributed without consent.

The report recommends that Ofcom’s guidance is strengthened into a mandatory Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) code of practice requiring platforms to take action by embedding safety into the design of their services. It also calls for education, prevention and work with young people to challenge harmful attitudes to sit alongside a suite of regulatory measures to tackle online misogyny