Young men navigating online gendered harms: fostering a feminist-informed critical digital literacy

• In Event: New risks to gender justice? Social media, masculinity and gender norms among adolescent boys and young men

Proposal

Recent media and public discourse in Australia and globally are replete with concerns about young men’s online behaviours from schoolboys circulating AI deep fake pornography of their female classmates and teachers, revenge porn and the sending of unsolicited ‘dick picks’ to anxieties about the manosphere radicalising young men into misogyny. These issues have sparked renewed scrutiny on masculinity and gender politics, emphasising the need to better understand how young men interact with online spaces. This presentation features findings from a recent study supported by the Australian eSafety Commission involving 117 young men. The presentation highlights both the risks and critical perspectives that these young men bring to their online experiences. While there are serious concerns about the potential harms of exposure to sexist and sexually explicit content online, the presentation draws attention to young men’s critical engagement with and challenging of online gendered harms. The presentation calls for a more nuanced understanding of young men’s online behaviours and a fostering of a feminist-informed critical digital literacy as a key strategy in promoting safe, respectful and ethical online engagements.

Author

• Amanda Keddie, Deakin University