“Adolescence”, the Netflix hit collection a few British 13-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of a horrifying crime, has intensified the nervousness of fogeys nervous about poisonous and misogynistic influences younger individuals are uncovered to on-line.
In dwelling rooms up and down the nation or over a cup of tea or espresso on the workplace, the crime drama — on which Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt labored as an govt producer — has obtained folks speaking.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer informed parliament he was watching it at dwelling along with his youngsters.
“Adolescence” tells the story of schoolboy Jamie whose household is thrown into turmoil when armed police smash down the door of his suburban dwelling and arrest him in a daybreak raid.
The four-part mini-series launched on March 13 had 24.3 million views in its first 4 days, making it Netflix’s high present for the week of March 10-16, in accordance with leisure trade bible Variety.
One query hangs over your complete collection: Could this angelic-looking younger boy actually commit such a savage crime?
The collection has resonated with an viewers more and more disturbed by a litany of stunning knife crimes dedicated by younger folks and the misogynistic rhetoric of influencers like Andrew Tate.
The drama highlights the “incel” tradition (involuntary celibacy) of males who really feel unattractive to the other intercourse and harbor a hatred of them and the way it’s mentioned on social media.
Isabelle, a mom of two daughters aged 16 and 18, stated she had been “shocked” by the collection and was painfully conscious that the story “could be true”.
“You don’t have any insight into the youth culture, you know, Instagram, all that stuff that you have no insight into. And adults are basically shut out… and that’s really scary,” the 49-year-old from Glasgow in Scotland stated.
“If your child is sucked into it, what do you do, or how do you get them out of it?” she added.
British media, which has hailed “Adolescence” as highly effective and well timed, has been asking the identical query.
“Is your son a teenage time bomb?” the Daily Mail requested, advising dad and mom to be careful for indicators similar to boys spending extra time alone of their rooms or turning into obsessive about the variety of followers they’d on social media.
The present’s writers and actors have informed interviewers they’ve been bowled over by its success.
“We never thought for a second that (the show) would have such an impact,” creator Stephen Graham, who additionally performs Jamie’s father, informed the BBC.
He got here up with the thought for the story after listening to on the news about two teenage ladies who have been murdered by younger males inside a number of weeks.
“It really hurt my heart, and I went a bit cold, and I just thought, what kind of society are we living in today where this thing is becoming a regular occurrence,” he stated.
Co-writer Jack Thorne stated their analysis required them to go “into the darkest holes of the internet”.
“It doesn’t take long to access and these kids are being polluted by this stuff, and we need to stop that pollution”, he stated, calling on the federal government to behave.
Michael Conroy, founding father of Men at Work, which helps academics and social employees interact with younger males and deal with sexism, stated he was “really, really glad” that the present had change into such a speaking level.
“The drama is brilliant and will be used a lot by teachers and parents. It will create essential conversations.”
But he warned that if these discussions got here throughout as criticism they might not result in “constructive dialogue and I don’t think many boys or young men will engage. They will feel attacked”.
Conroy known as on adults to take an curiosity within the “manosphere”, masculinist discourses, and the language that accompanies them: “What are they saying? What are the codes?”
“It’s the right series coming at the right time,” stated Andy Burrows, director of the Molly Rose Foundation, created after the demise of 14-year-old Molly Russell in 2017 after she seen dangerous content material on-line.
The inquest into her demise heard that of the 16,300 posts Molly saved, shared or preferred on Instagram within the six-month interval earlier than her demise, 2,100 associated to melancholy, self-harm or suicide.
“The show has done an amazing service in facilitating the national conversation about the impact of extreme misogyny and the ways in which online content and online influencers are able to skew the views of teenagers and young boys,” Burrows stated.
The basis has been calling for years for stronger laws and regulation of algorithms.
“This can be a really powerful wake-up call of the need to ensure that young boys are not being algorithmically bombarded with content,” he stated.
© 2025 AFP