Teach primary school boys the dangers of toxic online misogyny

PRIMARY schools should teach boys about the boundaries of acceptable behaviour as part of a ‘whole society’ approach to tackling misogyny, a senior police officer has said.

Maggie Blyth, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for violence against women and girls, said children should have to learn about the risks of sharing explicit images online and the ‘grave’ danger of toxic influencers.

She argued it was time for teachers to focus on finding ways to stop boys becoming future predators rather than leaving the issue to police. ‘I think there’s so much more that must and should be done at primary school into secondary about boys’ behaviour, and what boys feel they get away with,’ she told The Times.

Ms Blyth talked of the ‘exacerbated risk around Instagram and Snapchat’, where behaviour such as the sharing of images, pornography and misogyny is ‘unchecked’.

The officer said measures are also set to be put in place in police forces, including the introduction of domestic violence specialists alongside detectives in an attempt to ease the approach towards victims.

But she said the problem is ‘much bigger than policing’ because forces alone cannot put an end to misogyny and violence. She added: ‘The bigger debate for society is around prevention, and how do we stop men and boys developing a [harmful] type of behaviour or attitude.’

Ms Blyth was appointed in 2021 to tackle what her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary called the ‘epidemic’ of female violence. The police watchdog pointed to the record low rate of rape prosecution and the disproportionate number of girls affected by sexual violence.

Women’s trust in the police has also been damaged by a series of scandals including the case of Wayne Couzens, the serving Met officer who abducted, raped and murdered Sarah everard in 2021. Ms Blyth said: ‘Our job is to make sure they don’t get in, root them out when we do find them, and stop them ever coming back.’