Boys share offensive memes to score ‘lad points’

SCHOOLBOYS ARE sharing memes about rape and the Holocaust in a bid to score “lad points” with their friends, an expert has said.

More than a third of 11-18 yearold boys have shared racist or homophobic pictures, compared to 17 per cent of girls, new research suggests.

The figures from Digital Awareness UK (DAUK) also reveal that 73 per cent of boys and 70 per cent of girls have seen an offensive meme on a private group chat, while 40 per cent of the boys see offensive memes daily.

Speaking at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference’s annual autumn conference Emma Robertson, co-founder of DAUK, said the image-sharing ranged from the less serious to “anything in relation to somebody’s faith, and the Holocaust, to jokes about the ‘me too’ campaign”.

She also said the racist memes included “horrible comparisons with black people and animals” and things like “fat shaming”.

Memes are pictures or gifs, often with writing overlaid, which attempt humour by changing the context of the original material.

Ms Robertson said: “I think you have got the groups of students who are just looking to perhaps get lad points, or to entertain, to engage. And then I think you have actually got another group of students who don’t necessarily have the intention of upsetting, offending, being disrespectful.”

Simon Lockyer, head of the Royal Hospital School in Suffolk, said: “A lot of the time they say things that they would never ever write with a pen or say. But it’s easier somehow through the medium of social media to do something which you don’t have to process in the same way.”