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Adolescence leads to almost no change in use of online safety tools
10 April 2025, 17:42
There was almost no increase in the use of apps designed to protect children from harm online last month, despite the seismic impact of the Netflix drama Adolescence.
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The drama chronicles the story of 13-year-old Jamie Miller, who is arrested on suspicion of his classmate Katie after being exposed to misogynistic content online.
Its themes and analysis of the problems of toxic material on social media attracted critical acclaim, with the government striking a deal with Netflix to allow for it to be streamed in schools free of charge.
However, data shared exclusively with LBC by the polling company Ipsos UK indicates that although the show has influenced the national conversation, it only had a “limited impact” on the number of parents utilising key safety apps.
Through their audience measurement tool, iris, Ipsos charted the use of parental control apps such as YouTube Kids, Microsoft Family Safety and Google Family Link in the weeks after Adolescence’s release.
Read more: Netflix's powerful incel drama Adolescence to be shown in schools
The survey of 10,000 participants noted a mere 3% increase in the use of YouTube kids, and a similar rise for Microsoft’s app.
This comes despite Ipsos research which found that 75% of parents are concerned about what children are seeing, hearing, or doing online.
The breadth of extreme content available online has been consistently highlighted by LBC.
Yesterday, for example, the UK’s biggest PC gaming platform, Steam, was forced to remove a title that encouraged players to commit rape, incest and violence towards women and girls.
Players of No Mercy were even encouraged to "become every woman's worst nightmare", and "never take no for an answer".
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper praised LBC’s work in ensuring the game was removed from the site.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari, Ms Cooper wanted to “pay tribute to LBC for campaigning on this and for identifying this vile game”, before outlining the work the government is doing to clamp down on this content.
“That sort of vile material is already currently illegal. We have stronger powers being brought in as part of the online safety act to make sure that platforms of all kinds meet certain standards.”
Pressure continues to mount on Steam for continuing to allow extreme games on its platform.
An LBC analysis found that over 214 games featuring themes of rape and over 100 including incest.
LBC has approached Steam’s parent company, Valve, for comment.
