Posing as a 17-year-old girl online, I expected body image content. I got gender division

September 15, 2026 — 9:55am

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When I set up my fake profile of 17-year-old Olivia James, I expected my social media feeds to be flooded with body image content, “thinspiration” influencers, and beauty posts.

Instead, it took just half an hour to be shown content that stoked gender division – though this time, the content didn’t attempt to control the behaviour of the “other side”.

Last week, I posed as a 17-year-old boy on social media. Within 13 minutes of scrolling, my fake profile of Jaden Michael was shown content that led him down the manosphere pipeline, culminating in one post at the hour mark telling women to be as subservient to their husbands as they are “to their bosses”.

The federal government announced a crackdown on toxic content last week, requiring social media giants to allow Australian users to opt out of their algorithms. The reform is part of its digital duty of care bill that will force tech platforms to take reasonable steps to protect under-18s from misogynistic content, alongside posts........

© WA Today