SINGAPORE: “Who’s that, Finn?” I asked after glancing at my 13-year-old son’s phone. He shrugged and swiped up.

“No idea, just some random YouTuber,” he said, moving on to the next video which happened to be a Coin Master ad.

I never got a proper look, but something about the man on screen – the sunglasses, the tone, the posture – made me think it might’ve been Andrew Tate. Or someone parodying him, which I secretly hoped. I couldn’t be sure, and somehow, that uncertainty felt just as unsettling.

It reminded me of the much-discussed Netflix show Adolescence, a drama exploring the aftermath of a shocking act of violence by a 13-year-old boy.

While the story centres on Jamie’s alleged crime, it’s also about boys coming of age in a time where the loudest voices shaping young men are strangers on the internet.

If you’re raising sons today, chances are you’ve had at least one moment where you feel like you’re parenting against a tidal wave. You’re doing your best, showing up, staying informed, but you can’t shake the feeling that the culture is getting to them first. Not through a single big moment, but gradually, one YouTube short at a time.

Which brings us back to Andrew Tate, and the larger digital world he belongs to: the "manosphere".

PART MOTIVATION, PART RAGE

If you haven’t had the misfortune of stumbling into it, the manosphere is a sprawling corner of the internet where masculinity is endlessly debated, defended, and more often than not, distorted.