Boris Johnson’s ostrich-like response to Adolescence was inevitable

The creators of Netflix drama Adolescence hold the future of our children in their hands — no, that isn’t an exaggeration.

Having clocked up 66 million views in its first two weeks, the record-breaking drama has ignited heated debate across the UK, both online and in living rooms.

Following 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) after his arrest for murdering a female classmate, the four-part series unpacks some of the biggest threats to young people today, including online radicalisation and incel culture involving young boys.

So, when Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the creators to Downing Street and backed an initiative to make the show free to secondary schools, I wasn’t surprised. It’s also a decision I emphatically support.

Alas, one person who wholeheartedly disagrees with me is former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who made it crystal clear in his latest column that he believes such a proposal neglects the ‘real education needs of children today’.

Branding the Stephen Graham series ‘acted tosh,’ Johnson claims Adolescence is ‘far’ from a must-watch. In fact, he says it is ‘essentially irrelevant to the problem of teenage knife crime in schools.’

Consequently, he argues that showing it in lessons is unlikely to ‘achieve anything positive’, declaring: ‘As a deterrent, these dramatisations just don’t work.’

But what I watched in school shaped me just as much as what I read from a textbook, or scribbled down from the whiteboard.

And so, provided that screenings are treated with sensitivity and caution, I see no reason why streaming Adolescence to students can’t, at the very least, change attitudes towards masculinity.

At best, it could protect kids against toxic online narratives before irreversible damage is done.

But Boris Johnson’s opposition feels inevitable.

To be so instinctively dismissive of the mere idea of schoolchildren having access to Adolescence rings alarm bells.

Yes, it’s a TV drama, but I dare you to belittle it as only that in front of the researchers who spent hundreds of hours curating it, or the families who have lost kids to knife crime.

Studies have long shown that what they watch on TV can sway children’s decision-making and lead to copycat incidents.

But it works both ways. As long as we head into Starmer’s Adolescence plan with awareness and assure children no question is off-limits in the aftermath, I’m hopeful this can be a positive learning experience for all — adults included.

For Johnson to decide that Starmer is, as he writes, ‘getting away with murder in the classroom’ to a much higher degree than red-pill content pusher Andrew Tate, only proves that his desire to be a contrarian is stronger than ever.

‘Dangerous’ is an adjective I’ve seen thrown around online by fellow cynics who seem under the impression that Adolescence will replace proper teaching as staff members press ‘play’, then walk out of the room.

For this to work, that cannot be the case. Otherwise, we run the risk of everything Adolescence depicts becoming even more prevalent.

Children must not be left alone with this content, and it must not be used as a standalone educational resource. Teachers should be present at all times, discussions had afterward, and parents informed of, if not invited to, the viewings.

Alternatively, children will turn to social media for answers, which, as the series proves, is where murky misinformation lingers.

Not everyone is a visual learner, but children rely on practical and tangible examples to help them to understand the world. It’s thought that 65% of the general population learn best via visuals.

Shows like Adolescence bring their message closer to home in a way that reading Wikipedia cannot.

For children to fully grasp the magnitude of what’s at stake when we refer to the ‘manosphere’ luring young boys, or say that girls’ lives are endangered by misogyny, they need to see one of their own play it out before their eyes.

Lead actor Cooper, aged just 15, could quite easily be a boy sitting beside them in geography. That’s why he’s the perfect candidate to open his peers’ eyes to the dark underworld of the websites they scroll through at night.

Using TV shows and films as tools in educational settings is not a new concept. In my school days, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Schindler’s List, and Goodnight Mister Tom were all played to help us understand what happened during World War Two.

Others, such as Let Him Have It, was shown during lessons on corporal punishment. These films kept me engaged.

What we’re doing right now isn’t working.

In 2021, nine out of 10 girls had experienced sexist name-calling, and 92% of girls had been sent unsolicited explicit pictures or videos.

In 2023, a third of girls thought their school wouldn’t take it seriously if they reported sexual harassment.

Meanwhile, statistics show that nine out of 10 children own a mobile phone by the time they’re 11, granting young people access to dangerous material.

We need to progress with the times of this digital age and try to get ahead of the threats before it’s too late.

Adolescence has shown what happens if we bury our heads in the sand. We owe our children more than that.

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