Andrew Tate: 'I fear online influencer radicalised my son'
AlamyWill is like many 15-year-old boys. He likes sport, hanging out with mates and spending time on social media, but his mum fears he has been "radicalised".
Jane took a call from her son's school to say Will had been involved in an "incident" involving a female teacher.
She said Will, and some other boys, had been repeating the views of controversial online influencer Andrew Tate to make the teacher "squirm".
Some teachers are worried as they've seen a rise in boys quoting Mr Tate.
One leading child protection expert said the Online Safety Bill, which aims to police the internet and could become UK law next year, should protect "impressionable men" from "misogyny".
Jane said Will - not their real names - continued to push the teacher at his school in north Wales even when she told him Mr Tate's views could be described as extreme.
"He sees a man that is strong and powerful and has made lots of money," said Jane of her only son.
Who is Andrew Tate?
Mr Tate is a former kickboxer who rose to fame in 2016 when he was removed from TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to depict him attacking a woman.
At the time of his removal from the Big Brother house, Mr Tate said the controversial video had been edited, calling it "a total lie trying to make me look bad".
He went on to gain notoriety online, with Twitter banning him for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted.
Mr Tate has been banned from other social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, with TikTok also removing him, saying "misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated".
His posts on other online sites promote misogyny and target women and have millions of views, with the BBC's disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring saying earlier this year his content had "raised concerns about the real-world effect it could have".
Alongside former US president Donald Trump, he has recently been allowed back onto Twitter following Elon Musk's takeover.
Mr Tate, who has been approached by the BBC for a comment, told Piers Morgan in a recent interview that his views had been "misunderstood".
He has previously said his comments had been "taken out of context and amplified" to present "false narratives" about him.
'Sexist and horrible'
Jane said her son believes "everything Mr Tate says is taken out of context and used to make him look bad".
After the incident in school, she said she felt relieved the teacher knew the family well enough to understand the view that Will was expressing did not match the values he had been brought up with.
"I was trying to say 'don't you realise how sexist and horrible that is":[]}