Expert: Showing Adolescence in schools won’t tackle incel risk

Owen Cooper, centre, with Stephen Graham, right, and Mark Stanley in Adolescence.

The expert behind Police Scotland’s “That Guy” sexual crime prevention campaign says showing the controversial series Adolescence in every school will not halt incel behaviour.

Graham Goulden warns we must stop preaching about social media monsters like Andrew Tate and instead inspire our young men to do the right thing.

The That Guy campaign, launched in 2021, asked men to reflect on their own behaviours and attitudes – and those of their friends, family and colleagues – towards women, to prevent rape, sexual assault and harassment.

The following year a second campaign urged men to be the solution to preventing sexual offending by having those difficult conversations with a friend who may have crossed the line.

‘A knee-jerk response’

Goulden, who works with schools and prisons, said that the call to show Adolescence in all schools was little more than a knee-jerk response.

He said: “It attracts headlines, but it will do little to change how young men think and behave.

“Adolescence does have a powerful message for parents, not young boys.

“We already have really excellent courses which we really should be investing in. They encourage leadership, confidence and speaking up against misogyny.

“Young men worry about speaking up against their peers, so they stay silent. We want them to recognise their own potential and encourage them to use it to make a difference.

“By giving them the skills to speak up, they can lead a positive narrative to drown out the Andrew Tates of this world and show them up for what they really are: empty, angry men spreading lies about women making false allegations. We need to help young men become their own role models. Make them proud to be who they are. Encourage them to have positive conversations and that will have a lasting effect.”

‘Incel extremism and an epidemic of anti-women attitudes in our schoolrooms are linked and must be challenged’

The Netflix series provides searing insight into misogyny and incel – involuntary celibate – culture which encourages young men to hate girls.

Incels grow up socially isolated, spending hours online in misogynistic chat rooms. They hate girls because they believe they will never find a partner.

Actor Stephen Graham, who co-wrote the series, plays a father who has no idea why his young son Jamie Miller, 13, played by Owen Cooper, is being arrested following the murder of a girl from the boy’s school.

It is revealed Jamie did repeatedly stab the girl, killing her in an angry outburst because his mind had been warped by secretly watching violent social media in his bedroom night after night.

In one stand-out scene, baby-faced Jamie erupts in a terrifying rage aimed at the court- appointed psychiatrist assessing him, giving viewers the first insight into his broken psyche.

Goulden, who was part of the original Violence Reduction Unit which successfully challenged the violent gang culture in Glasgow’s housing schemes, said: “Bad behaviour needs to be called out, there is no doubt about that. Victims need to be supported and those who do bad deeds need to be held accountable. There are consequences for bad behaviour.

“Young men need unconditional support, even when they have made mistakes. By giving them that support and encouraging them to stand up and speak their mind we will drown out the Andrew Tates of this world.”

The former police inspector reveals young men are not all “taken in” by men like Tate.

He said: “Headlines scream one in five young men believe Andrew Tate is right. Everyone has ignored the fact that four out of five don’t believe Tate is an icon and his behaviour is unacceptable. We should be supporting them to be the kind of leaders who drown out Tate’s influence.”

Positive strategy

Goulden, who works with schools and prisons, warns treating young men as if they are the problem is only going to get “pushback”.

He said: “If I start finger-pointing, they push back.

“But if you place them in the role of bystander and ask them to look at a situation, it gives them the opportunity to widen their knowledge and open up a dialogue which allows you to inspire the action they take.

“Encourage young men to be more active in their communities to make them safer and better places for everyone.

“Self-awareness is a powerful skill to teach them especially when they are facing challenging situations. It encourages character building and when they recognise for themselves that something is wrong, they are much more likely to do something about it.”

Goulden believes we need a positive strategy to combat misogyny, not a negative one.

He said: “What we should be doing is inspiring our young men to stand up and be the good guy.

“Tackling online hatred and the abusive porn that is out there for all to see is not something that we are going to be able to do tomorrow or the next day.

“But if we change the mindset of our young men to do the right thing, it shows them that they do have a role to play in our society, and it’s a positive role.”

My support network has allowed me to stay on the right path

Karate classes can give boys a sense of purpose and distract them from potentially making bad choices.

Kanzen for Life, a charity committed to building better lives by using physical activity to inspire and promote wellbeing and education, teach 27 classes a week across Dundee, Angus and Fife including their multi-sport programme.

They work with around 2,000 people per week.

Oliver Bruce, 21 has been involved with the club for around 12 years and says it was a support network for him and stopped him from making bad choices. He said: “When I had friends that were maybe not making the best choices, and I think with the support network that I’ve had around me, I’ve been able to make sure I’m staying on the path I want to take.

“They had my back through that, I think, whether it’s karate or whether it’s of sporting aspect.

“Interaction with other people, other children, adults in a really positive environment can kind of help kids with their understanding of how to manage themselves, how to manage their emotions and their feelings, and I think especially within Kanzen we have a lot of role models for kids.

“Whether that’s people that are a little bit older than them, a lot older than them, the same age as them, it’s male, female, there’s positive role models in the club that children can speak to, get advice from, support from and that’s at all classes – all sessions, someone’s there for them.”

SNP pledge to criminalise misogyny may be dropped

The SNP’s promise to criminalise misogyny is likely to be scrapped amid fears of new culture wars before next year’s Holyrood elections.

Ministers had repeatedly pledged to bring in the radical legislation aimed at ensuring far greater protection for women and girls from male intimidation and verbal abuse, and to have the legislation passed before the end of parliament in March 2026.

Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the new rules would offer better protection and address the daily experiences of women after the results of a review by Baroness Helena Kennedy.

However, Baroness Kennedy, who reported that misogyny was an insidious problem in Scotland, has indicated she fears plans for the new laws may now have fallen victim to a divisive public debate around “woke” issues.

She said: “There may be a shying away from such a bold, groundbreaking move to safeguard women and girls at this particular time given the divisive nature of public debate around woke issues. Protecting women and girls from abusive behaviour and threats online and offline is extremely important right now, and efforts to direct that kind of poison towards boys and young men by the likes of the Tate brothers should concern us all.”

The Scottish government has officially blamed the delays on the court case in front of the Supreme Court, which considers whether or not the legal definition of women can include biological males.

They said: “With the Supreme Court still considering a case concerning the meaning of ‘woman’ under the Equality Act 2010, it will be important to consider any implications of that judgement before any legislation on misogyny is introduced.”

Their answer has been met with widespread scepticism as the legal action has been ongoing for years.

Marion Calder of campaign group For Women Scotland said: “To suggest that our court case is to blame for these repeated delays is patently nonsense, given this legal action has been going on in one form or another for years and ministers had previously insisted it was full steam ahead.

“For the government to now attempt to try to blame women for their own failures is dishonest and offensive.”