The internet is fuelling a rise in sexism, says Wark: Newsnight host warns web is teaching boys to think sex should be 'graphic and violent'



Newsnight co-host Kirsty Wark, 59, said the internet 'multiplies' sexism

She believes most of what youngsters learn about sex comes from porn



The BBC presenter has investigated rise in sexism for new documentary

Blurred Lines: The New Battle of the Sexes is to be screened on Thursday



The internet has fuelled a rise in sexism and is teaching young boys to think sex should be ‘graphic and violent’, one of the BBC’s top presenters has warned.



Kirsty Wark, who co-hosts Newsnight, said teenage girls who have sex are now ‘slut shamed’ by their peers as youngsters become increasingly vicious online.



And instead of being given proper sex education by their parents, most of what boys now learn about relationships comes from pornography and violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto.



Kirsty Wark, who co-hosts Newsnight, said the internet has fuelled a rise in sexism and is teaching young boys to think sex should be 'graphic and violent'

Miss Wark, 59, has investigated the rise in sexism for a new BBC2 documentary, to be screened on Thursday.



The presenter said she uncovered evidence the internet has made us more tolerant of sexist humour, including jokes about rape, leading to a ‘new coarseness’ in the way the sexes interact.



She told Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: ‘For teenagers now, the internet is as real as the air as they breathe. It is a place without morality.

‘It is hellish for young boys right now. I asked one boy whether he talked to his parents about sex and he looked at me as if I was mad. This is 2014. Why aren’t parents talking to their kids about sex?



What he was learning about sex he was learning from his peer group and he was learning from porn.



‘If all you know about sex is graphic sex, some of it violent, how do you form meaningful relationships?’



Miss Wark, who has two grown-up children of her own, said the internet ‘multiplies’ sexism because it encourages people to gather in tribes and target others with cruel abuse.

Miss Wark, who has two grown-up children of her own, said the internet 'multiplies' sexism because it encourages people to gather in tribes and target others with cruel abuse

In one new phenomenon, known as ‘slut shaming’, women who show any sexual independence are humiliated on websites such as Twitter and Facebook.



She said: ‘The victims, who are now ‘slut shamed’ and humiliated, are the ones who feel the effect – and it’s damaging the next generation by giving them a skewed idea of what prejudice actually is.



‘Sexism is there in full force, along with a rise in people being overtly vicious.



'For older generations, the internet can feel similar to simply ‘pub talk’ – it’s something external – but for young people, the web is part of the discourse of how they live their lives.



‘We’re now fully in the age of the internet. And it appears to be amplifying misogyny.’



Miss Wark also said the internet has fuelled a rise in sexist humour, which makes us more tolerant towards misogyny in our everyday lives.



She said: ‘Research from America has shown that if you are listening to sexist humour and are sexist you will be more likely to display sexist humour in your everyday life.



'If you are not sexist and you listen to sexist humour and you laugh, you won’t become sexist, but you will egg the ones on who are sexist. Their views are reinforced.



‘I was also very shocked by the extent to which some of our best known comedians use rape humour. In what circumstances is rape funny? I find that quite extraordinary.



‘When I interview comedians and they say everyone’s fair game and the whole point about comedy is that it’s free speech, it breaks taboos. But there is no taboo around rape, we know rape is awful, we know there’s no excuse for rape. Why make jokes about rape?’



Miss Wark also hit out at ‘cynical’ companies which create online porn and violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto, in which players are encouraged to kill virtual characters.





‘If all you know about sex is graphic sex, some of it violent, how do you form meaningful relationships?’ Kirsty Wark

She said: ‘It is a huge selling game made by very brilliant programmers and a brilliant games company, but as far as I am concerned you don’t have to go to the place in the game where you pay a prostitute, you have sex whatever way you want to have sex with her, which is very graphically detailed.



‘Then in the game if you attack her and stamp on her and kill her you get your money or your points back in the game. The defence is you don’t have to play that part of the game. So why is it there?



What makes it so exciting, what makes it such a crucial bit of your enjoyment?’



She added: ‘My naivety was I thought in the Seventies it was the start of this onward progress and the relationship between the sexes would be better. A lot of the times they are, but some of the times they are not. We’re going through a bad moment and I hope we find our way out of it.’

