Adolescence writer calls for 'radical action' not role models

One of the most talked-about TV shows of recent years, Netflix's hard-hitting drama Adolescence, has been the hot topic of discussion this week, from the House of Commons to US talk shows to the gates of the scriptwriter's son's school.

Those discussions have been sparked by the fictional story of a 13-year-old boy who is accused of stabbing a girl, and the factors that could have turned him into a killer.

"I've had lots of responses from people I haven't heard from for years, telling me about conversations they're now having with their children," writer Jack Thorne says. "That's really gratifying.

"My son's headteacher stopped me at the school gates to say, 'I'd like to talk to you about this, and I'd like to think about what our school can do and what other schools can do'," Thorne adds.

"The conversations seem to be starting in all sorts of different places."

Thorne is now calling for the government to take "radical action" to help tackle the issues the programme raises.

Chief among them are social media and the influence of incel (involuntary celibate) ideas, which encourage men to blame women for their lack of relationships and opportunities.

But the drama, which Thorne created with actor Stephen Graham, is not just pointing the finger at incel culture, the writer tells the BBC.

"I really hope this is a drama that suggests that Jamie is like this because of a whole number of complicated factors."

His parents, school and friends are all shown as playing a part in various ways.

But Jamie, played by Owen Cooper, is bullied on social media to make him feel ugly, and is exposed to incel messaging and skewed views on sexual violence.

"He is this vulnerable kid, and then he hears this stuff which makes sense to him about why he's isolated, why he's alone, why he doesn't belong, and he ingests it. He doesn't have the filters to understand what's appropriate," Thorne says.

"At this age, with all these different pressures on him and with the peculiarities of his society around him, he starts to believe that the only way to reset this balance is through violence."

The writer went down similar online wormholes himself on sites like 4Chan and Reddit in order to see the world through Jamie's eyes.

He found that these messages were not simply coming from the obvious places.

"It was far from just Andrew Tate. It was not those big guns of the manosphere," he says.

"It was the smaller blogs and vlogs and the little bits like people talking about a video game, but then explaining through that video game why women hate you.

"That was the stuff that I found most disturbing."

These issues aren't new, but the show has come as others are also discussing the dangerous messages aimed at boys and young men.

On Wednesday, former England football manager Sir Gareth Southgate delivered a speech warning against "callous, manipulative and toxic influencers".

"They are as far away as you could possibly get from the role models our young men need in their lives," he said.

Thorne says Sir Gareth is "amazing" - but he believes the solution is about more than having better role models.

"We've been having that conversation since I was a kid," the writer says. "This has got to be a point where we do something a bit more radical than that. It's not about role models.

"Role models obviously can have a huge impact on people. But truthfully, we've got to change the culture that they're consuming and the means by which our technology is facilitating this culture.

"It was a really interesting speech, but I was hoping he was going to propose more radical things than he did."

So what could more radical solutions be?

This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told Parliament he's been watching the "very good" drama with his teenage children.

Violence carried out by young men who are influenced by what they see online is "abhorrent and we have to tackle it", and is "also a matter of culture", he told the Commons.

Thorne hopes the PM will get the message that "there's a crisis happening in our schools, and we need to think about how to stop boys from harming girls, and each other".

"That's going to take a mass of different things to facilitate in schools and in homes, and that requires government help," he says.

He urges Sir Keir to "rather urgently" consider a smartphone ban in schools and a "digital age of consent", similar to Australia, which has passed a law banning children under 16 from using social media.

The writer has also suggested extending that to all smartphone use and gaming.

"I think we should be doing what Australia is doing, and separating our children from this pernicious disease of thought that is infecting them," he says.

A ban would be a tough sell to teenagers, though.

Thorne appeared on BBC Two's Newsnight this week alongside three men aged 18, 19 and 21.

When asked about a social media ban for under-16s, they had mixed feelings.

One said it was "a great idea, within reason", another said it would be "quite unfair", while the third was against the idea, arguing that "social media has brought a lot of good to young generations as well".

For Thorne, the question about how to police smartphones and social media is about to come very close to home.

His son is eight, and Thorne says he wants to make sure he establishes "a method of communicating with him" as he grows up. Soon, he will want his own phone.

While working on the series, he has been thinking about how to handle his son's future use of technology. "And I'm still processing how to do it."

Researching and writing Adolescence has opened his eyes about the challenges facing young people and parents, he says. But how to tackle them? That's the hardest part.