Misogyny and domestic abuse are long-standing wounds in our society, absorbed by children in the silence of living rooms, behind closed doors, and now, through social media. The digital world doesn't create this harm, it amplifies it.
According to the Office for National Statistics, one woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK. Charity Refuge reports that two women are murdered each week by a partner or ex-partner. Domestic abuse accounts for one in six crimes reported to police in England and Wales. These aren't just statistics. They represent lives shattered, families broken, and young people left to grow up in homes where love is confused with fear and power means pain.
Abusive behaviour is like a contagion and can be passed from one generation to another. A 2021 Home Office report flagged growing concerns about children lashing out violently at home, often echoing abuse they've witnessed or endured. These are not bad children. They are often scared, hurt, and unhealed.
Social media plays a dual role. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram too often reward aggression, ridicule vulnerability, and turn misogyny into entertainment. Young people are performing pain, playing roles where violence equals status, and “likes” equal worth. Influencers who demean women are given platforms larger than most classrooms, becoming unspoken educators of a generation.
Yet, the same platforms can also be spaces for healing and change. Youth-led campaigns have challenged misogyny, spoken truth to power and built non-violent resistance movements and digital communities of care. Educators and youth workers can empower young people to question what they see, to resist harmful norms and to choose different paths.
We must do more to equip parents and carers to talk about respect, gender, and relationships without fear or shame. Professionals need sustained investment and support to work with trauma, build emotional intelligence, and foster connection. We need programmes that help boys speak without needing to shout, and girls feel safe to exist without shrinking. Our experience has also shown us that in the right hands the voice of lived experience can reap huge rewards.
Addressing youth violence starts with acknowledging a painful reality: our society has normalised harm. It's not that young people have lost their way, it's that too many have grown up without seeing what love without control looks like, or strength without harm.
Adolescence may be over for some, but for too many families, the realities of it remain. Behind countless front doors lie stories of survival, silence, and suffering. If we are truly listening, then our response must be bold, compassionate, and rooted in the belief that change is not only possible, but urgent.
