Young men need positive and diverse role models as a small number of harmful voices dominate conversations online about masculinity, the eSafety commissioner says.

Social media algorithms target young men and research by the commissioner reveals they both experience and perpetuate online harms, including finding it normal to respond to abuse with abuse in gaming communities.

“There’s constant pressure for young men to conform to particular, often narrow and traditional, ideals about manhood,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.

The negative side of social media compounded feelings of individual powerlessness, the research found.

It confirmed the new reality that young men were facing an online wave of influencing behaviours, including from harmful content, Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher said.

“It’s really concerning because it has consequential impacts through the generations really as we’re trying to address violence against women and children in this country,” she told ABC Radio on Friday.

It was important to balance masculine behaviours and perceptions of manhood, she said. 

“It’s not easy and I’m not going to pretend it is, but it’s another front that we have to confront and respond to,” Senator Gallagher said. 

“These things are really hard. When you ban something it doesn’t mean people’s interest wanes or that children all of a sudden are not going to have access to that information.”

The opposition says it would move to increase the minimum age for social media access to 16 if elected.

Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley attacked large social media companies for profiting off kids. 

“We have to push through this … there are technological ways of doing this, it is perfectly possible,” she told Seven’s Sunrise. 

The government is running a trial on age verification technology to determine the best way to protect children online.

Some $6.5 million has been put aside in the federal budget for the trial.

It was important to ensure any moves to protect children worked, Education Minister Jason Clare said.

“That’s the hard question, ‘how do you make it work?’,” he said.

“I think we all agree that social media is a cesspit. We all agree we don’t want our kids on it, it’s about how do you do it.”

The government was consulting about what the right age for social media access should be, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said.

“We need the co-operation of the social media platforms … we need to have social media platforms in Australia that are upholding Australian standards,” he said.

“There are already meant to be age-restricted services on social media.”

By Dominic Giannini in Canberra