Throughout history, young people have looked to role models for guidance as they navigate the challenging transition to adulthood.
However, like many aspects of modern life, the internet has reshaped this journey—making an already difficult rite of passage even more complicated and confusing. The internet can be a pretty wild place for teenagers these days. It’s a space where they learn, connect, and explore—but it also comes with real challenges. What’s only recently starting to get attention, though, is the digital world that young men are navigating every single day and how it is shaping our boys more than we realise.
Online spaces are more than just entertainment or distraction—they’re powerful environments where young minds are shaped, identities are formed, and ideas about masculinity, relationships, and power are reinforced or challenged.
According to a new report by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the internet is a space full of tensions, complexities, and opportunities for young men. The research focused on Australian males aged 16 to 21, exploring how they express identity, explore sexuality, and build social connections online. The findings show that gender norms can both empower and limit young men. When young men try to live up to rigid masculine stereotypes, it can lead to self-harm and harm to others.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant emphasised the urgent need for positive and diverse male role models, warning that a small number of harmful voices are dominating online discussions about masculinity. The report said young men in the study spoke about actively seeking out content associated with self-improvement and male empowerment to become their "best version". Actively seeking out content about self-improvement sadly directs young men to male influencers. In a recent report released by the Movember Institute shows nearly 7 in 10 young men, seek out these influencers. Young men are attracted to the sense of community they find online and at the same time there appears to be a vacuum of role models and face constant pressure to conform to narrow, traditional ideals of manhood.
It is not an easy fix as there are many factors at play but what we can all do; as educators, parents and carers is to provide leadership on how to do good, help hone their critical reasoning skills and also to help cultivate responsible decision-making and self-awareness online.
Role modelling every day for our young men is so important and we have to remember they are always watching.
Tony Dosen, Deputy Headmaster