Netflix drama sparks national debate as UK seeks roadmap for 'lost boys'

MANCHESTER, England (CN) — A hard-hitting drama about a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a classmate has kindled soul-searching in the United Kingdom about how to address what many see as a crisis of masculinity and online radicalization.

The impact of the four-part Netflix series “Adolescence” has extended far beyond the screen, becoming one of the most talked-about TV series in recent years and creating public debate over boys’ well-being, including the growing influence of the “manosphere” — a loosely connected network of online communities that promote hypermasculine, anti-feminist ideologies.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer met the show’s creators at Downing Street on March 31, praising the series as “a torch that shines intensely brightly” on a set of social issues that are “not easily solved with a silver bullet or a policy lever.”

The show, released on March 13, drew 6.5 million viewers in the U.K. in its first week and earned 24.3 million views worldwide.

The leader voiced support for a Netflix initiative to stream the series free in high schools, but that proposal has met with unease from educators and experts who warn it could backfire without adequate training or support in place.

Lacking role models

The series is striking a nerve as the U.K. grapples with growing gender gaps in education, employment and ideology. The Lost Boys** report, published in March, warned that, “Boys and young men are in crisis.”

The Centre for Social Justice, an independent think tank that studies the causes of Britain’s social problems, said in the report: “Boys and girls no longer walk the same path from childhood to adulthood … with their interests, values and aims in life increasingly incompatible with each other.

The researchers say young men are increasingly drawn to conservative and right-wing politics, while women continue to gravitate to the left.

“Nearly half of Britons say women’s equality has gone ‘far enough’. In the emerging generation, an international study revealed that fully 60 per cent of men across 31 countries think women’s equality actively discriminates against them,” the center wrote.

It highlighted that 2.5 million children — one in five — are growing up without a father.

“As the likelihood of a masculine presence in the home diminishes … young men and boys across the U.K. are seeking new modes of masculinity,” the report said. “The first positive example of a man is increasingly being replaced by a poor counterfeit.”

The biggest example, the report notes, is Andrew Tate — a self-described misogyny influencer who was the third most Googled person in the world in 2023. Despite platform bans, his videos remain widespread online, with the Center for Countering Digital Hate identifying over 100 TikTok accounts featuring his content, garnering more than 250 million views.

“The male vacuum will be filled with something. And where better than through technology when children these days are more likely to have a smartphone than a father,” the researchers wrote in the report.

A separate study found growing tensions between young boys and girls when it came to masculinity and gender equality.

One of its authors, Bobby Duffy from King’s College London, said: “A gender divide has emerged among the youngest generations in their perceptions of whether feminism has done more good or harm, what the future looks like for men and women, and key terms in the debate, like ‘toxic masculinity.’”

‘Adolescence’ in the classroom

While “Adolescence” has drawn praise for highlighting real issues, experts warn the government’s embrace of it as a teaching tool may do more harm than good.

“The series touches on several recurring moral panic themes like toxic masculinity, incels, knife crime, the manosphere, and the absence of male role models,” said Emily Setty, associate professor in criminology at the University of Surrey.

The show prompts a reactive ‘something must be done’ approach. “Media interventions like this are attractive partly because they offer a seemingly simple solution to a complex issue,” Setty said, “educators need to just press play.”

Setty flagged multiple concerns, from practical to pedagogical. The show runs over four hours, making it unrealistic for most schools to show, while the rating makes it unsuitable for those under 15.

Most teachers are not specially trained to deliver relationships and sex education, Setty said. “Using fictional media in a didactic way risks oversimplification and can miss opportunities for meaningful engagement,” she said.

These sessions may “fail to acknowledge the diversity of young people’s lived experience,” Setty explained, and “could also alienate boys, either by implying that they are all latent threats or by being so far removed from their realities that it feels irrelevant or untrustworthy.”

These narratives are picked up by influencers like Russell Brand, who frames the debate as a culture that demonizes men and masculinity. Popular among young men, Brand will appear in court next month on charges of sexual assault and rape between 1999 and 2005, which he denies.

Jessica Ringrose, a sociologist specializing in gender and education at University College London, agreed the show could be counterproductive, calling the prime minister’s support to add the show to the curriculum “misguided.”

Ringrose believes the show is intended for parents, not children. “It could cause more damage if shown without correct scaffolding and support services in schools,” she said, including if survivors of sexual violence were forced to watch “Adolescence.” “It poses a grave ethical risk,” she added.

Ringrose co-led international interventions in schools on preventing sexual violence, which found that most young people had never been taught about online sexual harassment or sexual violence before.

Ringrose found that around 20% of boys reacted defensively to lessons on gender equity — leaving them susceptible to misogyny influencers.

“We need to educate all young people to stand up against sexism, racism and other forms of inequality,” she added. “A holistic approach is more effective than focusing on boys and men as problems to be fixed.”

The manosphere in the classroom

While the manosphere mostly functions online, schools are often the area where these ideologies play out.

Imran Ahmed is the CEO at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British-American NGO that works to stop the spread of online hate speech and disinformation.

“Teachers are often the first to notice the offline impact of the manosphere, seeing their students mimic violent rhetoric and disrespect fellow classmates,” Ahmed said.

“The Netflix show is fiction, but ask any teacher and they’ll tell you the online radicalization is very real,” he added. “I encourage parents and teachers to have open discussions about gender equality and masculinity issues with the younger generation.”

Misogynistic influencers like Tate use platform algorithms to reach young audiences and spread their messages, accumulating millions of followers even after being banned.

Ahmed says that platforms fail to enforce their own policies. “Social media platforms enable bad actors to prey on impressionable young boys, manipulating fears and insecurities to groom them into accepting hateful, violent ideologies,” said Ahmed.

“Platforms must stop enabling the circulation of violent misogynistic videos that often breach their own internal rules and community guidelines,” Ahmed added. If they don’t, policymakers need to implement and enforce laws that protect users.

Ringrose agrees. “If anything, the show should encourage us to take seriously the effects of algorithmic-driven platforms like TikTok and encourage regulators to enforce safety measures online including taxing these companies.”

The U.K. is currently rolling out the Online Safety Act, which requires social media platforms and search engines to detail how they will identify and curb risks related to illegal content and material harmful to children. Failure to comply could lead to fines of up to 6% global turnover.

The gaps in teaching

According to Ringrose, schools in the U.K. are often unprepared to teach relationships and sex education, which are given low priority in classrooms. “It doesn’t cover issues such as sexual violence and misogyny, nor does it connect the dots to how sexual violence is normalized in many online environments.”

Current school strategies like banning smartphones is problematic, according to Ringrose. “Banning devices and platforms is only a short-term solution and will leave youth unsupported when things do go wrong online,” she said.

“We found shockingly low rates of reporting of episodes of image-based abuse online because young people were afraid they would get in trouble,” Ringrose added.

Instead, she recommends “more and better digital literacy to support ethical use of digital media,” while at the same time demanding that social media platforms be held responsible for creating safer environments, with the government regulating them.

For Setty, schools should focus on “an evidence-based, research-informed approach, one that engages boys meaningfully, accounts for their ambivalence and complexity, and builds trust and critical reflection over time.”

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