'Adolescence' co-writer Jack Thorne and producer Jo Johnson headed to Downing Street on Monday, along with selected charities and young people, to meet with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and discuss the influence of online toxic – and especially misogynistic – material on young people.
Sir Keir described the show as "at times harrowing" and said it "lit a touch paper," shining a light “on a combination of issues that many people don't know how to respond to".
The drama, which centres on a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a girl, has sparked intense conversations about misogyny and social media.
"It instantly contacts with the fears and worries, not just of young people – because I was really struck by how riveted our children were to it – but also frankly the fears and worries of parents and adults across the country,” the prime minister commented.
The meeting came as Netflix announced it will make 'Adolescence' available for free to secondary schools, in an effort to further engage young audiences with the pressing themes of the show. This initiative was met with praise from the prime minister, who called it "an important initiative to encourage as many pupils as possible to watch the show."
“We made this show to provoke a conversation. We wanted to pose the question – how do we help stop this growing crisis. So to have the opportunity to take this into schools is beyond our expectations. We hope it’ll lead to teachers talking to the students, but what we really hope is it’ll lead to students talking amongst themselves,” Thorne said of Netflix’s decision.
Sir Keir warned, however, that there was not a "silver bullet response" to resolve the issue of toxic online content.
“Perhaps there isn’t one silver bullet response, some policy lever that can be pulled, it’s actually much bigger than that, almost a cultural issue,” said the prime minister.
Thorne, who co-wrote the show with actor Stephen Graham, recently called on the Prime Minister to "rather urgently" consider implementing a smartphone ban in schools and introducing a "digital age of consent," similar to Australia's law, which prohibits children under 16 from using social media.
The four-part British drama 'Adolescence' debuted earlier this month on Netflix to wide-spread acclaim. Netflix reported that it had 66 million global views in its first two weeks.
