Why Every Parent On Earth Needs To Watch Netflix's 'Adolescence'

Netflix's 'Adolescence' has opened eyes across the globe. If you're a parent, here's three reasons why you need to add it to your watch-list.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | March 31, 2025

Ask any parent in the world what their worst nightmare is, and they'd all give you a similar answer: losing a child. But there's another fate — much rarer, and arguably just as horrific — that you likely wouldn't even consider: your child taking another's life.

This is the terrifying premise of Netflix's current most popular limited series, Adolescence.

The series follows 13 year-old Jamie Miller and his family after he's accused of brutally murdering a fellow female classmate — a crime which he eventually pleads guilty to. The series has been revered in countless ways: for its brilliant scripting, actors and cinematography, but mostly for its gut-wrenching and eye-opening storyline.

Although the series isn't based on a singular "true story," the creators of Adolescence note that it draws influence from several real-life reports from the U.K. According to the House of Commons Library, in March of 2023 alone, there were 18,500 convictions and cautions made for possession of a knife; 17.3% of these offenders were between 10- and 17-years old.

Touching on themes such as incel culture, gender-based violence and the dangerous radicalization of young men, Adolescence sheds light on various terrifying realities — ones that are becoming increasingly threatening in today's age.

If you are a parent, these are just three of many reasons why you need to watch Adolescence, based on the sobering truths it confronts us with.

1. Bullying Is Still Prevalent, But Less Visible

Society has made powerful strides in recent years toward progression. Social issues that were once rife among the youth — such as bullying, sexism, racism and homophobia — have started to become less prominent than they were just a few decades ago, thanks to education, prevention programs and increasing overall levels of tolerance. That said, there have been unfortunate regressions in recent years.

In 2015, survey results on bullying were incredibly hopeful; statistics indicated that it had reached an all-time low since 2005. Unfortunately, just five years later, the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the world in its tracks. According to 2022 research from Scientific Reports, the pandemic marked a disappointing turning point that resulted in a significant increase in cyber-bullying.

Children today are more dependent on technology than ever before; they use their phones not just as tools but as lifelines to their social worlds. While parents once feared technology because their kids seemed savvier with it, many have since become more permissive upon recognizing how ingrained it is in their children's lives, as well as their own.

However, this shift in attitude has opened up new avenues for bullying — ones that are increasingly hard to monitor and regulate. Balancing the respect for a child's privacy with the growing complexity of online interactions is challenging, and many parents are left feeling helpless when it comes to protecting their kids from harm or even realizing that their child might be the perpetrator.

Adolescence exemplifies this issue. Even the detectives investigating the crime — who had full, unrestricted access to Jamie's social media — couldn't tell the difference between friendliness and bullying in his Instagram comments. The insidiously subtle form that bullying has taken on, paired with the incredibly cryptic, backhanded use of language and emojis, has made it almost invisible to the untrained eye.

2. Sexism Is Increasingly Normalized Among Young Boys

Not only has bullying resurged among the youth, but so has sexism. A February 2025 study conducted in the U.K., from PLOS One, highlights the increasing worry among school teachers about the impact of online misogyny on young boys. In a survey of 200 teachers, 76% of high school teachers and 60% of elementary school teachers expressed this deep concern.

Andrew Tate — a social media influencer who is shockingly popular among young boys and whose content is blatantly bigoted and sexist — was mentioned frequently by the teachers within the study.

One teacher within the study noted that a male student of theirs had publicly verbalized that it's "OK to hurt women because Andrew Tate does it," while another noted they'd heard a male student tell a fellow female student that she "belonged in the kitchen." Appallingly, one teacher even noted that their male pupils "touch girls non-consensually" and "do not understand why this is inappropriate."

Of course, these comments and behaviors affect more than just the school staff who witness it. As one teacher in the study explains, "The majority of the girls in my class have been worried about coming to school due to what the boys may say or do to them."

Adolescence also captures this grim, growing norm with unsettling accuracy. Teenage boys in the series — some only 12- and 13-years old — are well-versed in misogynistic rhetoric, including concepts like the "80-20 rule," "red pill" content and incel culture. These aren't fictionalized aspects of the show; they are very real, very dangerous principles that are spread widely on the internet.

For instance, claims are made that only 20% of men are deemed attractive enough to date the most desirable women, while the remaining 80% are left bitter and rejected. These kinds of warped perspectives incite resentment toward women and are known to lead to violent fantasies or actions, according to 2020 research from Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.

In the second and third episodes of the series, it becomes apparent that Jamie was influenced by these ideologies, to the point that his feelings about rejection by a female classmate were likely the trigger for his heinous crime against her. Disturbingly, Jamie had vocal supporters from the "manosphere" — one of whom even provided him with the murder weapon.

3. Parents Always Need To Be Vigilant

When we hear of children who commit heinous acts and crimes, fingers are usually pointed at parents. "Who raised them?" or "What was going on at home?" are often the first thoughts to come to mind.

While reports from the Office of Justice Programs do suggest that children of criminals and abusers are more likely to exhibit deviant behavior, there are always exceptions. Some of the world's most infamous criminals — like Richard Cottingham, Dennis Rader and Randy Kraft — had reportedly happy and healthy childhoods.

Jamie, in Adolescence, had a normal childhood, too. His parents, Eddie and Manda, were never abusive, nor did they have marital problems that may have affected their children; they were high school sweethearts who were still madly in love decades later. Naturally, they were devastated by Jamie's crime, asking themselves, "How did we make him?"

Throughout his childhood, both Eddie and Manda ensured that Jamie wasn't doing the same things that they'd gotten up to as teenagers — like underaged drinking, smoking, drug use or sex. When he was out with his friends, they knew where he was and what he was doing at all times; when he wasn't with his friends, he was home.

But when he was home, he was always locked in his room — quietly browsing the internet until the early hours of the morning.

Eddie makes a devastating observation in the final episode of the series. He explains that since Jamie was almost always at home — under his roof, and not out and about being mischievous — he thought that he'd been protecting him. He assumed that close proximity would make it impossible for Jamie to turn out as anything other than a happy, healthy young boy.

Eddie even noted that he'd made a concerted effort to be a better father than his was, and Manda poignantly stood by the fact that both Jamie and his sister were "made" in the same way: "through love." Regretfully, Jamie's normal upbringing couldn't prevent his eventual horrific crime.

Parents today must understand that hatred, bigotry and violence aren't just things that children can learn directly from their upbringing. The internet is saturated with dangerous, hateful rhetoric, and research suggests that it's only becoming more prevalent. It only takes one video, one comment, one Google search or one conversation to plant the seed.

If these messages are reinforced by peers or online communities, an otherwise well-adjusted and intelligent child can become radicalized shockingly fast. It's easy to forget that keeping a child physically safe is only one half of parenting; their minds also need to be guarded from dangerous ideologies. That's why parents today need to be more vigilant than ever about the content their children consume and, more importantly, the ideas that take root.

Curious what beliefs about gender roles you may be passing on to your children? Take this science-backed test to find out: Gender Role Beliefs Scale

A similar version of this article can also be found on Forbes.com, here.