Feeling anxious and hopeless, Will Adolphy began searching online for ways to self-regulate his mood.

His friend recommended a popular podcast, which started discussing self-help and gradually morphed into 'the manosphere'.

"As a young man, I felt like the world was against me," he told AAP on a walk around Rio de Janeiro.

"So, when I had someone online validating that, it then became exploited and taken to the extreme. There was a pleasure in it, watching someone speak up for men, and it was addictive."

The manosphere's online communities promote their own version of toxic masculinity, while claiming gender equality and feminism are a threat to men's rights.

Advocates, influencers, experts and policy-makers have gathered at a summit to discuss how to promote a caring manhood, with combating extremism online a major topic of discussion across four days in Brazil.

Mr Adolphy broke free from the manosphere after getting sucked in about 10 years ago, and now works to educate teachers and parents to better understand the ecosystem.

"I was a young man and I was unstable in body and mind. I had a lot of trauma I hadn't really worked through," he says.

"And then I was watching one guy, which led to me meeting a whole host of other characters, but I kept returning to the same guy over and over and developed an attachment.

"I've spoken to so many parents and young men, and my own journey as well, and the kind of constant within every sort of success story is dialogue."

He said talking to his friends, his girlfriend and a therapist helped him gain perspective to think more critically and openly.

"My thinking started to become my own," Mr Adolphy says.

"And that was the beginning of me moving away and becoming just a bit more open to dialogue with other people, hearing their perspective, and realising 'wow there's so many different perspectives in the world'."

The UK-based psychotherapist, who is writing a book on escaping the manosphere, believes society is experiencing a "real moment of change" around male identity.

But that can only happen if better boundaries are set and internet algorithms addressed at a policy level.

"Fundamentally, if you're not taking away the bottle of alcohol from the alcoholic, the issue still persists," he says.

"With technology and social media, we have to create some sense of boundaries within it, from the algorithms to just our access, particularly at the time of adolescent development."

Mr Adolphy and dozens of others attended a discussion on digital addiction, algorithms and online belonging as part of the summit.

Marija Manojlovic, executive director of Safe Online, says two out of three boys feel misunderstood and many are turning online to learn about masculinity.

"The governments have failed us in many ways because they were focusing on solutions at a level of downstream reactivity - content moderation, age restrictions - which we know don't work," she says.

"Where we need to be is to really have a radical vision of what is a caring online space? Give it attributes, give it principles, link to features and design choices."

Equimundo Center for Masculinities' Caroline Hayes says platforms once competed for people's time and attention but now compete to replicate human relationships by targeting a user's vulnerability.

"The design choices made are really trying to profit off loneliness and isolation, that's an existential problem. I'm very concerned about how attachment is becoming something to profit off," she says.

Consultant Galen Lamphere-Englund, who works on the convergence of counter-terrorism, violence prevention and tech, says obsession with true crime and misogyny have come together to normalise violence.

"That becomes this new form of nihilistic threat we need to understand and realise," he says.

A "heavy interwoven mix" of online platforms is being used to create a social infrastructure to exploit people.

This could begin with meeting someone online and forming a friendship, then being asked to join a service like Discord where they talk and play games together, Mr Lamphere-Englund says.

"It's a process of grooming that person, by isolating them, asking to be closer friends, then 'join me in a private session and share images with me' which leads to sexual exploitation or violence."

Melbourne-based Equality Institute founder Emma Fulu spoke at the summit on democracy and masculinity in the digital age and how she had been targeted online.

"When I go on TV, the first thing that happens is I am bombarded by vitriolic violent, racist commentary, often being threatened to be raped," she said.

Her response - and that of many women, non-binary and marginalised people - was to go offline and delete social media, which had a "chilling effect".

"It has this catalysing impact - women are less likely to step up, to be political leaders," Ms Fulu said.

Reset Tech director Kristina Wilfore, who has trained female politicians and activists to counter online threats, told the audience digital violence was ultimately a power issue.

"This is a systemic issue that requires political leadership and creating the conditions in which we can get that, to have more women elected to deal with these things from a policy level," she said.

She said tech companies had done a good job of making governments, including in the US, believe they were powerless to stand up against them.

Ms Fulu hopes the political and social chaos the world is experiencing could be "the dying gasp of a system that doesn't serve us", inspiring applause from the room.

"What if this is the crumbling of these institutions that are built to cause harm and profit just a few? she said.

"What if actually we are really close to major revolution of liberation?

"I feel an immense connection with people and planet, that's at the core of who we are, and I don't think a tech company can kill that."

Each of the experts and advocates were part of 100 changemakers who resolved to build and share an evidence base of tech-enabled harms and their implications for democracy.

They will now work to strengthen policy frameworks and global standards on digital gender-based violence and extremism.