Kids are being dragged down a troubling 'rabbit hole'. What happens if we switch it off?

The manosphere wouldn't disappear from the internet. But what if we took away the rabbit hole?

That's one of the questions posed by consent advocate Chanel Contos to change the way Australians experience social media and protect young people from the harmful effects of misogynistic online content.

Her organisation, Teach Us Consent, has been campaigning for reforms that would require social media companies to offer Australians a feature that opts them out of algorithms, instead giving people the option to see posts from friends and accounts they follow by default.

International researchers posing as boys aged between 16 and 18 were likely to be fed misogynistic content within 23 minutes of signing up to certain social media accounts, highlighting the role recommendation algorithms can play in exposing young men to harmful ideas.

Contos, in a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, accused big tech companies of radicalising young men into harmful sexual acts and called for strict reforms.

She cited research that suggested the manosphere — an online ecosystem of influencers and communities promoting hypermasculine tropes — should be understood as "a business with various actors who share the same commercial infrastructure who have identified male psychology as a market".

Members of the federal government have signalled support for the proposal amid a broader effort to address the rising rate of sexual violence among young people and a troubling spate of recent incidents.

Teachers have also raised concerns that attitudes from the manosphere are surfacing in Australian schools and driving gendered abuse towards them.

As proposed reforms gain increasing prominence, how much of the manosphere's power actually comes from the algorithm — and what could happen if we switched it off?

'Outrage fuels profit'

Experts note that the ideas driving the manosphere are far from new, but algorithms have transformed how widely and easily they reach young men.

"The manosphere was once used to describe fringe online communities. Men largely had to create an account, sign up, and actively participate in these online message and largely text-based forums," Krista Fisher, research fellow at the Movember Institute of Men's Health, told SBS News.

Today, it's a completely different phenomenon, she said.

"The way that the manosphere functions and exists in 2026 is so deeply intertwined with recommender systems, and we've seen that in research," she said.

The rabbit hole can begin with seemingly innocuous content about fitness, dating or self-improvement, before recommendation algorithms begin serving them increasingly extreme material about masculinity and gender roles.

Steve Roberts, a professor of sociology at Monash University who researches the manosphere, said the progression can shift from content about "being the best person you can be" to being the "best man you can be" and presenting gender equality as an obstacle.

"Then next, here's a better way of being a man, and it involves signalling that our common enemy is women," he explained, describing a "bubble where you get dragged further and further down the rabbit hole by the very nature of the algorithm".

"Outrage fuels profit."

There is evidence of a recent regression in young men's attitudes towards women and gender equality, following decades of broader progress.

Roberts says the manosphere has been responsible for much of this "reanimation of misogyny".

Patching up the rabbit hole

Three experts interviewed by SBS News agreed that removing algorithmic amplification would be an important and powerful step to reduce exposure and recruitment into manosphere communities.

But they said algorithms are only one part of the problem.

"What the manosphere is actually doing is amplifying stuff that's baked into the culture," Roberts said, pointing to recent allegations involving the Sydney Swans.

Professor Michael Flood researches men, masculinity and violence prevention at the Queensland University of Technology.

He told SBS News the manosphere can contribute to sexual violence by reinforcing ideas of male sexual entitlement and dominance, but stressed that those same beliefs can also be normalised through peer groups, workplaces, Australian sporting cultures and schools — and, in particular, pornography.

Age verification requirements were introduced in Australia earlier this year, making it harder for young people to access online porn. The government has indicated it's open to going further, including by considering a ban on porn that depicts strangulation following the recent death of a 16-year-old girl after a suspected sexual strangulation act.

According to Flood, depictions of physical and verbal aggression and non-consensual acts are routine in contemporary porn.

"I think we have a much wider problem of the porn industry and the kinds of depictions of sex, relationships, and women that it shows," he said.

Beyond the algorithms

Flood said reducing exposure to manosphere content needs to be accompanied by efforts to make young men less receptive to its messages in the first place.

There are studies that suggest both social isolation and male friendship groups can provide pathways into the manosphere, while other risk factors can include economic insecurity, relationship rejection and pre-existing sexist attitudes.

Flood's research found that boys who already hold progressive views about gender are more likely to reject the manosphere when they encounter it.

"Boys and men ... who think women and men should be equal, should treat each other with respect, when they encounter the manosphere, they go, 'This is sexist bullshit'. They reject it," he said.

"But boys and men who already are sympathetic to those ideals also can gravitate to the manosphere."

He said respectful relationships education was one way of building that resilience, alongside broader efforts to promote norms of gender equity and respect "so that the manosphere just becomes less appealing and less kind of credible, less attractive".

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