The head of the Metropolitan Police has warned that toxic masculinity on social media is fuelling a rise in sexual offences committed by teenagers against other teenagers. Sir Mark Rowley, the UK's most senior police officer, said he believes violent content online is affecting young boys' behaviour towards girls.
Sharp Rise in Child Sexual Offences
Alarming research shows a sharp increase in sexual offences committed by children. The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales reported that proven sexual offences by children rose by 47% in 2023–24 and a further 6% in the last year. Around 1,500 proven cases were recorded in the year to March 2025.
Online Content Fuelling Harmful Attitudes
Sir Mark told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "Our biggest increase in sex offending that we're wrestling with is teen-on-teen. That must be largely because the sort of toxic, violent masculinity ideology is online that some teenage boys are swimming around in, in their online presence, that's affecting their behaviour with girls. And we're picking up the pieces of that."
Research by the Youth Justice Board found that algorithm-driven content online can amplify misogynistic attitudes and normalise harmful behaviours among children. More than one in four children (27%) report seeing threats or images of sexual assault online, and a third said they had seen content encouraging violence against women and girls. Children first view pornography online at the age of 13.
Calls for Upstream Action
Sir Mark called for action further upstream, saying: "Now policing, putting more and more of these people in prison - we'll do that if we have to. But that can't be the right solution, can it? The solution has to be further upstream in terms of how the internet operates and the controls there and also education that protects them."
Rebecca Hitchen, head of policy and campaigns at the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), welcomed the remarks but stressed that police must also improve their response to women and girls who report abuse. She said: "While we need investment in prevention work across the whole of society and regulation of Big Tech, this doesn't mean the police can avoid scrutiny of the very real ways they fail women and girls who come forward to report abuse, including online abuse."
Government Action on Online Safety
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall will next week introduce an update to the Online Safety Act to require services to remove illegal content as soon as possible. No specific timeframe will be set for removal, but officials expect immediate action. Providers failing to comply could face fines of up to 10% of their global turnover or have their services blocked in the UK.
