have you seen adolescence? what did you think?

The scene where the dad is crying in his son's bedroom!!!I found myself telling my 8 months old boy, “Please be a good boy when you grow up” I just started staring at him wondering about his future 💙. One minute you are worried about potty training and finger foods and sleep schedule, the next minute you are wondering, how will his life become as a teenager and then a man 😖 And the part where the black police guy with the white lady cop are at the school, He asks her “does it look like anyone is learning anything here “ I immediately reconsiderd homeschooling 😖😩

we won’t be allowing social media either! it makes me worry about school too because there will be other kids that do use social media and have that kind of mindset. i wish there were special schools for families with the same opinion on big things like this 🥲

@Offy oh god that scene!! i have girls so think my fears are a bit different, but i can so imagine how this show must feel so scary to mums of boys. having boys or girls in the social media age is scary!!

@maizie omg schools with that mindset would be amazing! i really hope the government will make changes in the coming years. i was a secondary school teacher before i had kids and so much of the show felt really familiar to me from things i witnessed while teaching - the social media and phones are a nightmare for education!

A little bit like the USA with guns.... It's a mental health problem. Taking away social media won't stop the problem. I'm not saying I agree with children using it, but there is a bigger issue running in the background that needs to be addressed. I don't know what the answer is, it's a complex issue, but banning social media isn't going to solve it entirely. I have 3 boys and it's something that concerns me. How do you teach them to be humble, but stand up for themselves? I am desperate for them not to be the bully or the bullied.

where can i watch?

@Kirsty i do agree that there is more to be done than taking away social media, i just want to delay my daughters using it as long as possible!

@Kirsty it’s not a mental health problem. It’s a radicalisation problem. The young lad was radicalised by content he’d come across online from the likes of Andrew Tate and the red pill manosphere. It was an homage to what is happening amongst young boys and the violence against young girls by young boys incited via social media by the Andrew Tates of this world. No access to social media, or monitoring what they can access will make a difference

@MIA❤️‍🔥 netflix!

@Donna Woods definitely agree!

I would definitely recommend reading or listening to the audio books Stolen Focus, and then also Anxious Generation. They haven't been written as parenting books, but I have found them helpful as a parent and it really helps understand what the internet is doing to all of us, and especially children. We can't and wont get rid of it but it really highlights how it's statistically less likely that the physical world is dangerous for our children but the online world is. We protect children from physical harm, strangers and external people dangers etc, while giving uncontrolled (even when we think it has parental control) access to the online world. Anxious generation is really internet, phone, social media and gaming Vs play based childhoods. While stolen focus looks at those issues and also pollution, chemicals, sleep, consumerism and diet impact on the attention of children and adults. Both books emphasise that these systems are being made to make us fail - they make money that way.

@Donna Woods people who are most often radicalised are already vulnerable. Whether it's low self esteem, isolation, discrimination.... There are many ways, all affecting a young person's mental wellbeing. They go hand in hand. Help young people address their mental health, you will automatically tackle these issues. As always, it won't address every instance, but it will help with a lot. It would help people identify the problems before they become a bigger issue.

@Helen THIS!!

@Helen thank you for the recommendation, i will definitely check these out!

I absolutely bloody loved it! I've thought about all this stuff with social media and children. In this generation it's such a hard task to keep your children off social media, because it doesn't matter whether they've not had it. At some point growing up they'll want what their friends have and they won't understand too much about all the reasons why they can't have it? But, they best believe if my kids get social media I will be checking everything!

I didn’t totally understand what happened and I rewatched it, I was not grasping the message it was portraying but knew it had something x

I haven't seen it yet but I'll definitely check it out!

Have you watched Childhood 2.0 or The Social Dilemma? Those both changed mine & my husband's mind of internet access for our children. I want to watch Screened Out, Social Animals, & Like too.

No but I'm already decided my kids won't have anything other than a barkphone or similar till 17

I found it deeply scary as a mum of a little girl and also just as a parent how little some people know about their children? Where they are at night? Who they are talking with? What’s happening at school? I already planned to have big conversations with my girl but I will be having some serious conversations about this type of thing and behaviours of men and boys. What’s safe and what’s not. My daughter is only 4 but doesn’t have an iPad or tablet and we have already spoken about social media. Unfortunately for my daughter her dad works in cyber security and there’s no way she’s doing anything online without him having controls on it & knowing what she’s up too. She won’t be allowed access until she’s 16 and even then we will be checking it as and when we ask. There’s too much stuff she doesn’t need to see.

Makes us think a lot ! So hard to see honestly especially the last episode, I cried my heart out watching the dad crying.. I think it isn’t only about social media, bc you can’t really forbid social medias to your kids lets be honest, but being aware and teach them And a point of it also is building self esteem of your kids, help them appreciate themself and find something they are good at What is very hard in watching it is that they seem really good loving parents, the sister is adorable, and I’m like but being the perfect parent is just impossible, we are all here trying to be our best but what if …

I enjoyed it but struggled to watch the last two episodes. Although when he’s with the psychologist you do see glimpses of how evil he can be. My son has a phone and you do need to have controls on there and check it every now and again. He started off with a brick but didn’t use it. My daughter as well will get one when she’s walking to school. Unfortunately bullying happened before the inventions of smartphones and most kids have access to a tablet or computer or will need access to do homework.

@Marie if your kids have a phone that doesn’t have access to the internet or you monitor what they are doing on their phone they can absolutely not have social media. Instagram/facebook/snapchat etc have age limits for a reason 😊

@Kirsty While it is definitely true that for some young people poor mental health comes before internet use and possible radicalisation, more and more data and studies are saying that the opposite is true. That it is the internet and smartphones that are, for many people (especially adolescents) causing the poor mental health. (Generally) For girls from social media and for boys from gaming and access to porn. The internet is now made to make us stay online for as long as possible and to make superficial online connections over real world friendships. It is definitely worth taking the time to understand the research happening, especially where it's not from business interested sponsored groups. Eg. tobacco companies studies to say smoking is fine, the same is happening in smartphone studies. I should say that I work in robotics and tech development in academia but have no personal links to smartphone/internet research other than as an interested parent!

@Emilie it's worth noting the age limits are not regulated. A child of any age with internet access can download, access and use social media under the age limit.

@Helen i am glad that you agree that the route cause is mental health and wellbeing. If you understand young people's mental health (and adults) you can see the link between the two. Social media is an aspect of it that needs to be addressed, but addressing that single factor will not solve the bigger issue. In a nutshell, the poorer your resilience, usually caused by difficult upbringing, abuse, absent parents, lack of home life structure, social isolation, puberty, abnormal hormone changes, the list very long... The poorer your mental health and wellbeing. The more susceptible you are to radicalisation. Someone who has poor mental wellbeing is more likely to be radicalised and affected by what is on the internet. Social media is part of a bigger problem. I don't know what the answer is, as a parent it concerns me, and i am not sure what I will do when it comes to social media yet.

I should also say that i work in education and have a qualification in young people's mental health. I am not the foremost expert by any means, but once you understand the basics of young people's mental health, you realise that there are many factors that affect the issue of radicalisation, social media being just one of them. Address young people's mental health, and you will address the rest.

I think the main thing I took from it is the importance of open communication with my child - I want to create an open dialogue and for him to know he can talk to me about anything and everything. No judgement, just conversation. I’ve also read about some schools introducing a phone ban now and I hope others follow suit, it won’t stop the issues but the results have been positive.

@Dana Lew i haven't! thanks for the recommendations!

@Marie i definitely agree about building self estesem but i do think you can forbid social media. if the only access to the internet your kids have is supervised, and they don't have phones that can download the apps, you can definitely control their use of it x

@Karen yeah i agree they will need access to internet, i dont want to pretend it doesnt exist for my kids, but they wont have their own devices and definitely wont be able to take them to their bedrooms x

@Fay definitely open dialogue is huge! and i hope the same about banning phones - i was a secondary school teacher and the effect they have on education (in so many different ways) is massive x

@Emilie don’t be delusional 🤣, I had very very stricts parents and I had no phone until 17years old and I had social medias in secret, with the computer (not mine) using it with the excuse« I have homework/researches to do on it ». Or in the school library. My brother stole money to my parents/grand parents/Christmas money of our other brothers/sisters to buy an IPod, and he could have used social medias in their back as well. When I mean I had stricts parents, I mean that if they were discovering that, we got beaten and lot of abuse. So you can be the most strict and forbid everything in your home, your kids if they want to they will. I will add as well that my father was an IT engineer working with apple, he knew all of parent control and so on and still I went through social medias. I believe more on teach my kids security and trust than forbid everything