One organisation I have a great deal of time for is Collective Shout. Since their launch in 2010, Collective Shout has achieved a huge number of significant wins: billboards objectifying women have been pulled down, inappropriate clothing for children withdrawn from sale, violent games banned, and other forms of sexualised advertising halted. 

Major corporations have joined their movement, pledging to reshape their practices for a world free of sexploitation! It would be easy to see Collective Shout as a prudish bunch of conservative evangelicals, but it is more the case of average people who have had enough of the exploitation of children. 

This very disturbing article highlighting the repulsive actions of the loathsome Andrew Tate – a misogynistic ‘influencer’ (is there anyone decent who falls into this category?) is a warning for parents. An ideological idol to many young men who for no reason feel aggrieved, is a poisonous reference point for what is going wrong with their thinking.

Collective Shout is making people aware of the problems associated with young men and their attachment to the pornography industry and the ways in which this industry is affecting them and their relationships to women, sex-dolls and associated women-hating material and crude, exploitative advertising that uses the sexualisation of children to sell products. 

It would be naïve to think that many of these pernicious influences are not trickling down to mainstream thinking. Not to put too strong an emphasis on it (because thankfully most young 

people enjoy a healthy relationship), I do hear comments that need to be called out. I would ask all parents to be diligent in monitoring their child’s use of various platforms. Many times, these malodorous ‘influencers’ find traction invertedly.

There are some researchers who believe that parents have far less of an influence on their children than what they think.  If that is the case, then what and who does have greater influence? It would be tragic to think that the void is filled by trash such as Tate or the allure of the pornography industry with its unashamed focus on violence against women.