Adolescence tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school.
The four-part Netflix series includes themes of incel culture, mysogyny, and the treatment of women.
Jamie, who is played by the actor Owen Cooper, is bullied on social media, made to feel ugly and rejected, and is exposed to incel ideas and messages as well as warped views on sexual violence.
“Incel” is a shortening of the term “involuntarily celibate”. It is a fast-growing safeguarding issue in schools. The term has been adopted by a growing group of predominantly white men and boys, who use websites to discuss misogynistic and violent views about women which they have as a result of feeling rejected by them.
These are themes which SecEd’s resident safeguarding expert Elizabeth Rose has addressed. In a recent article, she wrote: "There are many hooks (from Intel culture) that could start a chain of radicalisation and lead to extremism and possibly violent attacks. As schools, we need to understand this, but also recognise the risks to the individuals accessing these groups themselves. There are many references on the forums to suicide and self-harm.
"We need to make sure that we are aware of the latest risks to children and ways that they can be harmed, and we need to consider the role that online radicalisation can play and ensure that we are working to keep children safe in this arena. We also need to recognise that many things we already do to prevent radicalisation will help to respond to this issue."
The series (which is rated 15+) is now being made available to secondary schools via the Into Film free streaming service alongside an education resource for use in the classroom.
The resource helps teachers to use the drama in a sensitive and age-appropriate way to support conversations in secondary schools around its themes. It aims to help develop students’ media literacy, critical thinking, empathy, and an understanding of different perspectives.
The resources could be used as part of PSHE and lessons in other subjects to drive the conversation around the rise of misogyny, dangerous online sub-groups and social responsibility. The resource introduces the themes covered in the series as well as some of the language and terminology used in the online subcultures that Adolescence makes reference to.
All four episodes of the drama will be available to view, or teachers can use the highlights feature on Into Film’s streaming service to select and save scenes that illustrate key topics and themes for discussion.
Hard conversations: In this scene, father Eddie Miller, played by Stephen Graham, tries to come to terms with the arrest of his son Jamie Miller, played by Owen Cooper, for the murder of a teenage girl (image courtesy of Netflix)
It comes after prime minister, Keir Starmer, convened a roundtable with the show’s producers and other experts to discuss some of the issues raised in Adolescence.
Co-writer of the show, Jack Thorne, has previously said that Parliament should consider a smartphone ban in schools as well as a similar “digital age of consent” law to Australia, which has recently banned children under-16 from using social media.
Into Film’s CEO, Fiona Evans, attended the roundtable and said that the “incredible” show could be used in a variety of ways by schools to “continue the important conversations that the drama has already prompted in homes across the UK”.
MPs at the Houses of Parliament have also witnessed a performance of Unacceptable – a theatrical production that explores themes of sexism, sexist behaviours and misogyny among young people and which is used as an early intervention in secondary schools.
The play was performed at the request of Helen Hayes MP, chair of the Education Select Committee. Unacceptable is written and delivered by UK-based theatre and film company, Narrative Alchemy. It is designed to be age-appropriate for secondary school students and, to date, has had an audience of around 30,000 young people in schools across the country.
The writers say they created the play to be engaging, non-judgemental, and to empower boys to reflect on their actions, while showing girls that they do not have to tolerate unacceptable behaviours.
Following the performance last week, Ms Hayes MP, said: “Sexism and misogyny infiltrate all corners of society and parents, teachers and young people themselves often struggle to tackle it. Unacceptable is a really effective use of the power of storytelling to educate young people on sexism and misogyny and begin conversations which can be transformative, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone seeking to address misogyny amongst young people.”
- Into Film is a UK charity for film in education and the community. For full details of the Adolescence resources, visit www.intofilm.org/adolescence
- For more details on Narrative Alchemy and the production of Unacceptable, visit www.narrativealchemy.co.uk/what-do-we-do/education/applied-theatre