"He's a top G. He's a cool guy. He knows what he's doing."
This is how hundreds of Australian teenage boys feel about internet celebrity, self-confessed misogynist, and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate, according to a recent survey.
It revealed not only do the vast majority of boys know who Andrew Tate is, but many say they relate to his philosophies.
"Young men are really connected to some of his key messages around drive and motivation … he's cutting through with direction and clarity," said Matt Defina, an organisational psychologist and head of impact at The Man Cave.
"That's really dangerous because then they get caught up in his other more damaging views."
The data comes from Mr Defina's Melbourne-based organisation, which runs healthy masculinity and preventative mental health programs in schools.
The organisation set out to gauge the impact the controversial British-US influencer was having on young men after he rose to prominence last year.
Who is Andrew Tate?
Mr Tate is a former kickboxing champion who is most notable for his openly misogynistic attitudes and violent rhetoric towards women in online videos.
His posts have been viewed billions of times and gained him millions of followers.
Mr Tate first gained notoriety after he was kicked off reality television in the UK in 2016 when a video of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend emerged.
He also started a series of online ventures including "Hustler's University", which claimed to teach paying subscribers how to make money.
It was later shut down, with critics labelling it a scam.
In 2022, his misogynistic attitudes led to bans on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, though the latter has since been removed.
Last month, Mr Tate was arrested in Romania after an investigation into allegations of forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking and rape.
But despite ongoing controversy and more recent criminal investigations, the survey by The Man Cave of more than 500 boys found that 28 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that they looked up to Mr Tate.
Thirty-six per cent found him "relatable".
"We started to see some of his messages, even his key phrases, were showing up in classrooms," Mr Defina told the ABC News Daily podcast.
"We spoke to 24 schools last year and 50 per cent of them said, 'We are seeing a significant and negative impact of his influence on our boys in the school.'"
Mr Defina said many of the videos Mr Tate had made referred to women as the property of men, and suggested "you can do anything you want with a woman when you have got her in a relationship".
Despite his recent bans on social media, Mr Tate's content is still shared and copied by other accounts, making it almost impossible for young people to avoid.
"This is really the first generation of young people that are being raised by social media," he said.
'[The] algorithm is designed to capture their attention as much as possible.
"So we're also seeing this dangerous emergence of how social media can really perpetuate some toxic messages."
How do you talk to teenage boys about Andrew Tate?
As parents and educators struggle to navigate the influence of figures like Andrew Tate, Mr Defina says it is vital that adults know what the message they're dealing with is before they step into a conversation.
"Go and actually watch some Andrew Tate content. Start to understand what he's about and form your own perspective on what you think about him," he said.
Next, Mr Defina encourages keeping an open mind.
"It's really important to not shut the conversation down, and to really understand what the young person thinks and why they relate to him and what they enjoy about him, rather than just rejecting him overall," he said.
"The likelihood is that even just this young person being heard by you and actually being able to express their perspective is going to mean they're way more open to an opinion that you have eventually as well.
"I think where we can go wrong is if we really just make Andrew Tate 'wrong'. Anyone that relates to him then feels that they're being made wrong as well."
