Conference Agenda

This study investigates the relationship between adolescent digital leisure participation and desensitization to online misogyny. The central research question asks: To what extent do different types of digital leisure activities predict adolescents' desensitization to online misogyny, and what psychological and contextual factors mediate this relationship? Specifically, this research examines whether cumulative participation in online gaming, social media, streaming services, and online communities is associated with higher acceptance of sexist attitudes, cyber sexual violence myths, and normalized exposure to misogynistic content.

The study addresses three sub-questions: which specific digital leisure activities demonstrate the strongest associations with desensitization indicators; whether online disinhibition mediates the relationship between digital leisure and desensitization; and whether gender differences exist in these relationships. The primary objective is to provide empirical evidence identifying which digital leisure forms are most strongly associated with youth desensitization to misogyny, while examining online disinhibition as a potential mechanism.

Adolescent leisure activities have increasingly migrated to online spaces. However, this shift has exposed youth to systematic encounters with misogynistic content embedded within digital platforms. Online gaming communities and social media serve as conduits for "manosphere" culture, exposing young people to sexual harassment, objectification, and rape culture during recreational activities (Bates, 2020; Ging & Siapera, 2018).

Recent research documents concerning trends. Vickery and Everbach (2021) identified a "radicalization pipeline" on YouTube and TikTok, where algorithms progressively expose adolescents to extremist gender ideologies. Massanari and Chess (2020) analyzed how meme culture trivializes misogyny, preventing adolescents from recognizing its severity. Jane (2017) emphasized that online misogyny has evolved into structural culture, with adolescent exposure profoundly impacting attitude formation.

Repeated exposure produces desensitization effects—reduced emotional responsiveness and increased prejudice acceptance (Soral, Bilewicz, & Winiewski, 2018). Despite this issue's severity for gender equality in education, empirical research examining which specific digital leisure activities contribute most significantly to youth desensitization remains limited. Existing studies focus on qualitative analysis or single platforms, lacking comprehensive quantitative investigation of how diverse participation patterns relate to multiple desensitization dimensions.

This research integrates Media Effects Theory, specifically cultivation and desensitization theory, to understand how repeated exposure to misogynistic content shapes adolescent attitudes. The Online Disinhibition Effect (Suler, 2004) serves as a mediating mechanism, referring to reduced social constraints in digital environments that may amplify desensitization. Ambivalent Sexism Theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996) captures the multidimensional nature of sexist attitudes, distinguishing between hostile and benevolent sexism. The study also employs Cyber Sexual Violence Myth Acceptance to understand acceptance of false beliefs minimizing online sexual harassment.

This research addresses the European/International dimension by examining transnational digital platforms operating identically across global contexts. While data collection occurs in South Korea, the platforms investigated—YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, online gaming, and streaming services—are identical to those used by European adolescents. South Korea combines high digital connectivity comparable to Northern European countries with distinct gender cultural dynamics. The quantitative methodology and validated theoretical frameworks facilitate cross-national comparison and replication studies in European contexts, advancing understanding of how transnational digital leisure environments pose universal challenges to gender equality in education.

Context: Internationally, there has been a powerful crisis narrative regarding how boys and young men are susceptible to social and gender pressures that arise across the hybrid offline-online spaces they navigate. Recent research has highlighted how boys and young men in Australia use online content to re-define masculine norms and gender dynamics, which were traditionally learned through family and peers offline (eSafety Commissioner, 2024; Schulz, McDonald & Zembylas, 2025). Recent research indicates that many boys struggle to make sense of themselves amid influential digital content that promotes narrow and often unattainable masculine ideals. Against this backdrop, we ask what role education can play and, more specifically, how strength-based e-safety education can respond by valuing and mobilising the digital knowledge, critical capacities, and lived experiences boys and young men.

Significance: As public health debates continue to centre on the potential harms of digital engagement and the need to shield adolescents from risky or harmful content, we see governments worldwide move to restrict young people’s access to social media (Odgers & Jensen, 2020). We are witnessing a growing number of countries engaged in legislating access to social media for young people. Australia recently introduced a so-called ‘ban’ on social media in December 2025, and we do not yet know the full effects. Harmful online content, which is alarmingly diverse, is often associated with gendered social pressures (e.g. body image, sexting, gender-based harassment, deepfakes, etc). For boys and young men, there are significant concerns globally regarding exposure to restrictive masculine norms, often embedded in ‘influencer culture,’ where research suggests this content could be influential to their gender identity. While we do not discount this research, or the multiplicity of ways in which they are vulnerable to digital harms, we instead shift the focus foregrounding how Australian boys navigate digital risks and position themselves as responsible digital citizens. Our research focuses on the ways Australian adolescent boys and young men understand online risks, and how they safeguard themselves and their mental health while consuming social media and other online environments prior to the implementation of the ban.

Theory: Strength-based e-safety education frames young people as active, capable digital participants rather than passive victims of online risk. It foregrounds existing skills such as critical judgement, peer support, ethical reasoning, and adaptive use of platforms, building on what young people already do to manage their online lives. Problematising narratives of fear or the need for restriction, this approach emphasises agency, confidence, and informed decision-making in digital spaces (Livingston & Third, 2017). The majority of strength-based e-safety education is focused on relational practices, open-dialogue around help-seeking, the role of bystander intervention, and collective norms. Overall, strength-based e-safety education resists deficit narratives and supports young people to navigate digital environments with competence and responsibility.

What do social networks bring to relationships between young people in terms of peer socialisation? What aspects of their lives are shared? Among these, which specific dimensions relate to gender? In this paper, we will examine how young people perceive their social interactions in the digital space, as well as the direct effects on their friendships and romantic relationships, their attitudes towards sexuality, tensions and conflicts between peers, and power relations (social, gender-based, related to the marginalisation of certain groups). The influence of social media on young people's lives is debated in every country around the world at the political, economic, societal and scientific levels. Research on the effects of social media on young people is largely dominated by the fields of neuroscience and health, with references to sociology being rarer. This multiplicity of viewpoints gives rise to an impression of scientific cacophony. This is particularly evident in France, where parliamentarians have just debated a resolution to ban digital social networks for young people under the age of fifteen (January 2026).

While research on digital sociability agrees that digital social networks are essential places for young people to socialise (Pasquier, 2020), where they exchange and share ‘their lives’ widely and even publicly (boyd, 2016), few studies have explored the link between the technical parameters and functionalities of these applications designed to support social interaction.
In this paper, we will discuss how young people use digital social networks, how they produce markers of social interaction in these private spaces, and what underlying tensions exist within their circle of friends. These digitally assisted social relationships weave together sociability, intertwining what is publicly displayed to the wider community and what is shared more intimately. What happens when the intimate escapes control and becomes public, or when communication intended for digital spaces invades and generates tensions with spaces of co-presence sociability (Balleys and Coll, 2015)? In these circumstances, we will ask ourselves what roles friends can play.