Less than a month after its Netflix debut, the limited series Adolescence is already influencing public debate on internet safety and the troubling role of social media in young people’s lives.
The four-episode drama follows a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a female classmate. As the story unfolds, we learn this innocent-looking child was immersed in the misogynistic world of the online “manosphere” — a dark subculture of male influencers that glorifies dominance, control, and hatred toward women. Netflix has announced that it will make the series available to screen for free in secondary schools across the United Kingdom, a move that earned praise from Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
To its credit, Adolescence powerfully illustrates the dangers of toxic online spaces. But it also makes a critical misstep: it narrows its focus too tightly on “toxic masculinity,” missing the broader, more urgent reality: that both boys and girls are being manipulated, exploited, and harmed by today’s digital world.
We’re in the midst of a youth mental health crisis, and the role of social media is impossible to ignore. According to a national Harris Poll, 87% of young people ages 14 to 25 report experiencing regular mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and persistent loneliness. These trends have been on a sharp and steady rise since the early 2010s, when smartphones and social media converged and became omnipresent in teenage life.
Research continues to show strong links between excessive screen use and negative mental health outcomes among adolescents. Children are spending more time online than ever, yet many feel more isolated, more anxious, and more disconnected from real relationships than any generation before them.
While Adolescence rightly calls out the dangers of misogynistic online communities, it does a disservice by portraying boys largely as would-be predators lurking in digital echo chambers of hate. That framing obscures a devastating truth: Many boys are victims too. They are victims of online predation, cyberbullying, and algorithm-driven exposure to violent, hateful, and self-harm content.
Since 2009, depression rates among teenage boys have increased by 44%. Suicide rates are climbing as well.
Earlier this year, 16-year-old Eli Heacock of Kentucky died by suicide after being targeted in a sextortion scheme. Online predators coerce minors into creating and sharing explicit content. Then they threaten to share the images or harm the victim’s family unless the child sends money or more explicit photos.
Eli never even shared an explicit image. The predator used artificial intelligence to generate fake pornographic images of him, then threatened to release them and harm his family unless Eli paid $3,000. Eli’s story is tragic. But it is far from unique.
In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion — a staggering increase from just over 10,000 in 2022. The overwhelming majority of victims are boys. Since 2021, this form of abuse has been linked to at least 30 suicides among teenage boys. This is the online reality too many children are navigating alone.
Adolescence has prompted larger policy discussions about whether the U.K. should consider a smartphone ban in schools and age restrictions on social media. Those are policies that are worth exploring, not because boys are an inherent threat to society but because all children are at risk from a tech industry that has repeatedly failed to put commonsense guardrails in place that would help keep children safe online.
If Adolescence sparks critical conversations, that’s a welcome step forward. But it’s not enough. We need more than dramatizations of individual tragedies; we need a broader reckoning with a system that continues to fail our children.
‘BAD INFLUENCE’ IS NOT A WARNING ABOUT CHILD FAME BUT ANOTHER VEHICLE FOR IT
Here in the U.S., bills to protect children online have repeatedly been introduced and then blocked by powerful lobbying groups representing Big Tech. But there are promising signs that the tide is finally turning. The Take It Down Act, which would criminalize the use of AI in the creation of deepfake pornography, just passed out of committee in the House of Representatives. Congress needs to pass this critically important bill.
We must demand better from tech companies, better education for families, stronger policy protections, and a cultural shift that acknowledges the full scope of the crisis because every child, regardless of gender, deserves a safe childhood.
Melissa Henson is the vice president of the Parents Television and Media Council, a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment. On X: @ThePTC.