Context: Internationally, there has been a powerful crisis narrative regarding how boys and young men are susceptible to social and gender pressures that arise across the hybrid offline-online spaces they navigate. Recent research has highlighted how boys and young men in Australia use online content to re-define masculine norms and gender dynamics, which were traditionally learned through family and peers offline (eSafety Commissioner, 2024; Schulz, McDonald & Zembylas, 2025). Recent research indicates that many boys struggle to make sense of themselves amid influential digital content that promotes narrow and often unattainable masculine ideals. Against this backdrop, we ask what role education can play and, more specifically, how strength-based e-safety education can respond by valuing and mobilising the digital knowledge, critical capacities, and lived experiences boys and young men.

Significance: As public health debates continue to centre on the potential harms of digital engagement and the need to shield adolescents from risky or harmful content, we see governments worldwide move to restrict young people’s access to social media (Odgers & Jensen, 2020).  We are witnessing a growing number of countries engaged in legislating access to social media for young people. Australia recently introduced a so-called ‘ban’ on social media in December 2025, and we do not yet know the full effects.  Harmful online content, which is alarmingly diverse, is often associated with gendered social pressures (e.g. body image, sexting, gender-based harassment, deepfakes, etc). For boys and young men, there are significant concerns globally regarding exposure to restrictive masculine norms, often embedded in ‘influencer culture,’ where research suggests this content could be influential to their gender identity. While we do not discount this research, or the multiplicity of ways in which they are vulnerable to digital harms, we instead shift the focus foregrounding how Australian boys navigate digital risks and position themselves as responsible digital citizens.  Our research focuses on the ways Australian adolescent boys and young men understand online risks, and how they safeguard themselves and their mental health while consuming social media and other online environments prior to the implementation of the ban. 

Theory: Strength-based e-safety education frames young people as active, capable digital participants rather than passive victims of online risk. It foregrounds existing skills such as critical judgement, peer support, ethical reasoning, and adaptive use of platforms, building on what young people already do to manage their online lives. Problematising narratives of fear or the need for restriction, this approach emphasises agency, confidence, and informed decision-making in digital spaces (Livingston & Third, 2017). The majority of strength-based e-safety education is focused on relational practices, open-dialogue around help-seeking, the role of bystander intervention, and collective norms. Overall, strength-based e-safety education resists deficit narratives and supports young people to navigate digital environments with competence and responsibility.

Methods: This work draws from 20 individual interviews with boys and young men over the age of 18 and 7 school-based focus groups with those under the age of 18 (N=47). In using semi-structured interviews and focus groups we were able to focus on an in-depth exploration of participants’ perspectives while retaining sufficient consistency to allow comparison across accounts. These approaches support the generation of rich, contextualised data that captures how participants interpret and make sense of their experiences in digital spaces. After the research was conducted, a thematic analysis was undertaken to identify and interpret key patterns and trends across the dataset. Interview and focus groups transcripts were read iteratively to support familiarisation with the data, and initial codes were generated to capture recurring ideas and points of significance. These codes were then reviewed and grouped into broader themes that reflected shared meanings across participants, while also attending to points of divergence. This process supported an analytically grounded account of how participants articulated their experiences and perspectives.

Results: In examining the digital practices of boys and young men, we identified four interrelated themes relevant to educators today: 1) the participants’ awareness of risk in digital spaces; 2) their developing digital literacies through peers, family, institutions; 3) youth-led safeguarding; and 4) perceived self-responsibility in e-safety. Together, these insights complicate dominant narratives of young people as passive or vulnerable users of social media and digital technologies. Instead, they highlight how boys and young men engaged in perceived sense of individual responsibility where they protect themselves from harm in digital spaces. Conclusion: This research contributes to the scholarship on the lives of young people during a time of intensifying digital restrictions. One of the main reasons for these policy changes is the risk posed to young people’s mental health as well as their exposure to harmful and influential online content. These findings highlight the need for e-safety initiatives that recognise both the vulnerabilities and existing critical capacities of boys and young men. Our research seeks to move beyond the crisis narrative and capture key aspects of what boys and young men bring to their e-safety education. In an era of increasing digital restrictions, this work stresses the importance of inclusive research practices that platform young people’s perspectives to inform future online health policy and regulation.

eSafety Commissioner. (2025). Online risks for women. Accessed November 25, 2025. https://www.esafety.gov.au/women/online-risks-for-women Livingstone, S., & Third, A. (2017). Children and young people’s rights in the digital age. New Media & Society, 19(5), 657–670. Odgers, C. L., & Jensen, M. R. (2020). Annual research review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age: Facts, fears, and future directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(3), 336-348. Schulz, S., McDonald, S., & Zembylas, M. (2025). ‘Tell this fuckin’bitch to pull her head in’: affective infrastructures of gender injustice and manosphere classroom encounters. Gender and Education, 1-16.