Adolescence, the Netflix hit series about a British 13-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of a horrifying crime, has intensified the anxiety of parents worried about toxic and misogynistic influences young people are exposed to online.
In living rooms up and down the UK or over a cup of tea or coffee at the office, the crime drama — on which Hollywood’s Brad Pitt worked as an executive producer — has got people talking.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament he was watching it at home with his children.
Photo: AFP
Adolescence tells the story of schoolboy Jamie whose family is thrown into turmoil when armed police smash down the door of his suburban home and arrest him in a dawn raid.
The four-part mini-series released on March 13 had 24.3 million views in its first four days, making it Netflix’s top show of the week, according to Variety.
One question hangs over the entire series — could this angelic-looking young boy really commit such a savage crime?
The series has resonated with an audience increasingly disturbed by a litany of shocking knife crimes committed by young people and the misogynistic rhetoric of influencers such as Andrew Tate.
The drama highlights the “incel” culture (involuntary celibacy) of males who feel unattractive to the opposite sex and harbor a hatred of them, and how it is discussed on social media.
Isabelle, a mother of two daughters aged 16 and 18, said she had been “shocked” by the series and was painfully aware 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, Scotland, said.
“If your child is sucked into it, what do you do, or how do you get them out of it?” she said.
British media, which have hailed Adolescence as powerful and timely, have been asking the same question.
“Is your son a teenage timebomb?” the Daily Mail asked, advising parents to watch out for signs such as boys spending more time alone in their rooms or becoming obsessed with the number of followers they have on social media.
The show’s writers and actors have told interviewers they have been taken aback by its success.
“We never thought for a second that [the show] would have such an impact,” creator Stephen Graham, who also plays Jamie’s father, told the BBC.
He came up with the idea for the story after hearing on the news about two teenage girls who were murdered by young men within a few 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 said.
Cowriter Jack Thorne said their research 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 said, calling on the British government to act.
Michael Conroy, founder of Men at Work, which helps teachers and social workers engage with young men and tackle sexism, said he was “really, really glad” that the show had become such a talking point.
“The drama is brilliant, and will be used a lot by teachers and parents. It will create essential conversations,” Conroy said.
However, he warned that if those discussions came across as criticism they would not lead to “constructive dialogue, and I don’t think many boys or young men will engage. They will feel attacked.”
Conroy called on adults to take an interest in the “manosphere,” masculinist discourses, and the language that accompanies them.
“What are they saying? What are the codes?” he said.
“It’s the right series coming at the right time,” said Andy Burrows, director of the Molly Rose Foundation, created after the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell in 2017 after she viewed harmful content online.
The inquest into her death heard that of the 16,300 posts Molly saved, shared or liked on Instagram in the six-month period before her death, 2,100 of them related to depression, 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 said.
The foundation has been calling for years for stronger legislation 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 said.
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