When Netflix released Adolescence last month, few expected the limited series to become a cultural touchstone overnight. But in just two weeks, it racked up over 66 million views, becoming the streaming giant’s most-watched limited series to date.
The premise is gripping: a 13-year-old boy is arrested for the murder of a young girl. But it’s not the plot alone that has people talking—it’s the subtext. The show dives into the murky waters of online radicalisation, the “manosphere,” and the influence of digital figures like Andrew Tate.
Viewers, critics, and even politicians have responded—not just with fascination, but with something closer to panic.
A New Flashpoint in an Ongoing Moral Debate
Across the media spectrum, from Harper’s Bazaar to Rolling Stone, Adolescence has become more than entertainment. It’s now a symbol in an age-old cultural debate: what’s happening to our boys?
The UK Prime Minister called for the series to be screened in schools. Some lawmakers have revived discussions about smartphone bans, echoing policies already active in Australian schools.
These moves aren’t just about one show. They speak to a collective anxiety—about adolescence, masculinity, the internet, and how all three are interacting in unpredictable ways.
Fear vs. Reality: A Growing Disconnect
At the heart of the public response is fear. Fear that boys are being “lost” to toxic online spaces. Fear that digital influencers are shaping their values. Fear that sex, violence, and misogyny are just a few clicks away—and that parents and schools are powerless to stop it.
Studies out of La Trobe University and Lancaster University suggest that young people engage with online content more critically than we give them credit for. They don’t absorb everything they see. They discuss. They question. Sometimes they push back.
Yet our cultural reflex often assumes the opposite: that boys, especially, are digital blank slates, vulnerable to the worst corners of the internet with no tools for resistance.
The Rise of the “Dangerous Boy” Narrative
This isn’t new. Every few years, a media moment reawakens the “dangerous boy” narrative.
In the early 2000s, it was violent video games. Then came pornography. Today, it’s YouTube algorithms and TikTok “alpha male” influencers. Adolescence simply gives this long-running story a new script.
But the constant through-line is the same: boys are either perpetrators or victims, never participants in their own moral development.
Dr. Alexandra James, one of the co-authors behind recent research on youth digital behavior, argues that this view does boys no favors. “We’re denying them the ability to make sense of their world,” she notes, “by assuming they’re incapable of navigating it.”
Boys and the New Digital Landscape
This isn’t to say the internet is harmless. It’s not. There are dark pockets of the web filled with misogyny, conspiracies, and misinformation. And yes, some of it targets or entices teenage boys.
But the digital world is also where many boys find community, self-expression, and information they might not access elsewhere.
Whether it’s through anonymous forums, gaming servers, or Instagram DMs, boys today are asking real questions about identity, power, consent, and relationships—questions they often can’t ask anywhere else.
What they need isn’t fear-based bans. They need guidance, literacy, and trust.
What We Miss When We Focus Only on Fear
The immediate impulse to screen Adolescence in schools, or to restrict smartphones, might feel like action—but it sidesteps the harder work.
Teaching boys how to think critically about online content isn’t easy. It requires ongoing conversations, cultural humility, and sometimes uncomfortable honesty about sex, gender, and power. But it’s work worth doing.
When we leap to solutions rooted in fear, we risk reinforcing shame and silence. We send the message that boys are problems to be solved—not people trying to understand a complicated world.
The Role of Media in Shaping Public Anxiety
Shows like Adolescence tap into our deepest cultural nerves. They reflect back to us our uncertainties about how technology is shaping youth, especially boys. But media is also a mirror—it reflects, exaggerates, distorts.
A single fictional character’s descent into violence may be compelling TV, but it isn’t representative of all boys online. We should be careful not to confuse drama with data.
Otherwise, we risk repeating the mistakes of the past: demonising teenage boys for being exactly what they are—young, vulnerable, and still learning.
Moving Forward With More Nuance
Instead of banning phones or clamping down on digital spaces, what if we taught boys how to ask better questions? What if schools made space for them to talk—not just about what they saw online, but how it made them feel?
The research is clear: when boys are trusted to reflect and critique, they do. When they’re invited into conversations, they respond. The internet isn’t going away. Our best bet is to help boys navigate it with integrity, not fear.
