Teenager Dissects Netflix Drama Worried Parents

“It’s Just Weird To Talk About Your Sexual Feelings to Your Parents,” Says 15-Year-Old Ben *.

His Parents, Sophie and Martin, Two Professionals in Their 40s, nod understandingly. They Are Also Discussing The Kinds of “Big Issues” Ben’s Social Media Usage Throws Up, and for Ben Their Conversations About Sex and Pornography Even “The Worst”.

The Family – Minus Ben’s Little Sister, Who Is Too Young The Discussion – Are Their Living Room to dissect the Smash-Hit Netflix Drama Adolescence, What They Watched The Previous Evening.

The Series Follows The Story of 13-year-old protagonist Jamie, who is accuseded by Murdering Female peer after Being Exposed to Misogynistic Online Material and Subjected to Cyberbullying.

Both of Ben’s Penents Are Concerned The Behavior is Being Impacted by The Material is Exposed to, and Ben, Who Is Worried HimsSelf, Is Trying to Set Limits on His Own Phone USE.

Given Their Concerns, And How They Overlap The Themes Of The Themes to Watch the Program Together and Allowed BBC News to Their Discussion, which Ranged From Their Andrew Tate to Whether Boys and Girls Can Be Friends.

Ben is sitting on The Sofa In The Living Room Scrolling on His Phone Before the Conversation Begins.

The Parents Take Their Seats Looking Relaxed Despite The Difficult Subjects They Are About To Discuss. Photos of Long Ones Line The Bookshelves in The Family’s Living Room, And A Piano Stands Against The Wall.

Sophie and Martin Have Worked To Create A “Very Open” Household, Sophie Says, Where “All Topics Are The Table”. WHILE Watching the Program, Sophie Made A List Of Things To Talk About Ben.

A confident and outspoken Teenage Boy, Ben is well-liked by fellow pupils His Single-Sex State Secondary School. But the Qualities That Popular With His Peers Ofen Land Him in Teachers, Who Give Him Detentions or Send Him to Isolation Making What His Mother Describes As “Inappropriate Comments”.

In The Show, Jamie and His Peers Use Language Associated The “Manosphere” – Websites and Online Forums Promoting Misogyny and Opposition to Feminism – and Incel Culture. Incels, Short For Involuntary Celibate, Are Men Who Blame Women Because They Are Unable to Find A Sexual Partner. It is an ideology That has been Linked to Terror Attacks and Killings in Recent Years.

Surprisingly perhaps, “Incel” Wasn’t A Family Term to Ben, And His Dad Martin Had to Explain It Thy Watched The Program.

“People Just Call Each Other ‘Virgins’. I’ve Not Heard ‘Before’ Before,” Ben Tells His Parentets. He Suggests The Term Might Have “Dropped Off” Young Media For Young People, Reflecting at The Pace On The Conversation Moves Online.

Ben Tells His Parentets Are Elements of the Show He Recognise, Including SCHOOL at the Fights and Cyberbullying School. But heh thinks it is only a “Rough picture” of What It’s Like To Be Today, And That It was Principally Made for “An Adult Who Isn’t Online”.

For example, IT Neglects To Show The Social Media Dangers, Hey Says, and Some Details – Including The Secret Emoji Codes One Children Use – Ring False.

It is for That Martin, Who Says Heyed The Tense Drama, Also Feels The Show’s “Worst Nightmare” About Their Child’s Phone Using Sometimes Itsrics Overtrics Antempt to “Shock” Anticipation.

Andrew Tate, An Influencer and Central Figure Of The Shadowy Online World of The Manosphere, Is Mentioned by Drama and Has been the Cause of Much Concern Among Parents and Teachers. But Ben Says That Andrew Tate Was “Popular” at His School About Two Years ago, He now is Now “Old News”.

Ben has noticed the way Tate Combines Health and Wellbeing With Politics. “SOME OF THINGS, Like An Hour A Day ‘- Fair Enough, That’s Correct. But then he combines, Like’ The Man Should Go Out and The Wow and The Wow Stay ‘,” Ben Says.

Both Penets Agree That Tate is notogyny for Blamne. As far as they are concerned, he is symptomatic of “A Bigger Social Problem”.

This problem is represented Starkly in the Bleak Picture of Adolescence Paints of Male-female Friendships in the Social Media Age. Protagonist Jamie Doesn’t Have Any Female Friends, And Appears To Views With The Opposite Sex Through a Lens of Dominance and Manipulation.

Sophie is concerned That interactions Between Boys and Girls Are Distant and Imperson in Ben’s Peer Group. She Says Ben Doesn’t Have Many Opportunities To Mix With His Age.

And She Worries Her Son Is Getting Most Of His Information About HOW TO Interact With Social Media. “It’s Really Twisted,” She Says. “They Don’t Know How to Be Belanave Around EACH.”

She asks Her Question: “If You Don’t Know To Girls When You’re Feeling Awkward, If You’re Like, ‘Eurgh, I Don’t Know How To Dress’, Where to Help?”

“Online,” Ben Says.

“So It Goes Full Circle,” Says His Mum. “That’s Where They Get Information.”

Ben Isn’t Embarrassed That He’s “Used Chatgpt for Two Years Years” to Get Ther Sort Of Advice. “OR Tiktok,” He Adds.

Sophie Says Ben Learned Most Friendship With The Opposite Sex During a Visit To A Cousin’s House, Who Attends a Mixed School and Has Female Friends.

She recalls ben’s cousin reprimanding Him after Ben Asked Whether The Couser was Attracted to A Female Friend.

“I Don’t Remember Him Getting Annoyed With Me Like That, But Okay,” Ben Says.

They Debate Their Varying Recollections On the Until Land on a Version On a Version On a Version On a Version Those, ‘No, That’s My Friend. I Don’t Think of Them in Them in That Way,’ “Sophie Says.

“That Was Really Eye-Opening Him,” She Says. Turning to Ben, She Recalls: “You Came Back From It, And You’re Like, ‘It’s Much Better (at My Cousin’s), Girls and Boys Are Friends.'”

In The Netflix Drama, It is Revealed That Jamie’s Victim Katie Had been Subjected After a Male Classmate Shared Intimate Images of Her Without Her Consent.

Jamie’s Discussion of this incident with a Child Psychologist, Played by Erin Doherty, Is Pivotal To The Program’s Acclaimed Third Episode.

Ben has Seen this Kind of Abuse of Trust Among His Peers too. “There’s a Guy Near Here, and (A Picture of) His Genitals Got Leaked On A Massive Group Chat with Loads of People,” He says. “That was a big thing on tiktok.”

The Series Kicks With An Episode Chestion Question About The Sexualized Images of Adult Women Has Shared On HIS TESTAGRAM Page, Hinting At The Young Teenagers Can Access Pornography.

This Feel Feeds to Ben, Who Thinks Porn is The “Biggest ISSUE” Among His Peer Group. He Knows Boys Who Are “Addicted” to It: “They Are On It.

Ben Squirms A Little While Talking about pornography, staring at The Wall or Fiddling With His Phone.

Heems More Comfortable Talking About The Other Forms Content Content Young People Come Across Online.

He Estates That “One in 10” Videos Watches His Phone Contain Distressing Material, Including Scenes of Extreme Violence. And Ben’s Penets Are No IllUsions That Their Son is “Safe” Just Because He Is Upstairs On His Computer – Unlike Jamie’s Parens in the Show.

For Martin and Sophie, The Solution Lies In Giving Children Better Opportunities to “Participate” in Society and Build Their Self-Esteem.

Theyy They Are Also Keen For Their Son Son to Have Male Role Models to Learn. Ben, who has been paused to check to phone Several Times in the course of their discussion, re-engages with the conversation.

He is Animated in His Praise for His Sports Coaches, Whose “Really Strong Morals” He admires.

The Parents Nod, Evidently Pleased by His Enthusiasm. They Say They Pack With Activities With Activities to Get Him Off His Phone. But this is expensive, they say, and puds poorer students A disadvantage.

Sophie Says of the Show’s Main Character, Jamie: “He Doesn’t Feel Good. His Dad Looks Away When He Fails.”

Adolescence Shows That Children Limited Opportunities to Build Their Self-Esteem even more “Vulnerable” to the Predatory Messages of Misogynistic Influencers, Sophie Says.

Both Parents Agree Tech Companies, The Government, Schools and Families All Responsibility To Offer Young People A Convincing Alternative To The Sir Sirphere.

They Insist Parents Can’t Do It alone. As Sophie Says: “It’s A Tsunami and Someone’s Given Me on Umbrella.”

Ben Thinks What Happens Online is too ofthen dismissed by As Being Irrelevant to The Real World. Hey Thinks this is a mistake; Social Media Should Be Treated “Like Real Life – Because It Is Real Life,” He says.

* All names in this article have been changed.