Netflix's Adolescence exposes that power no longer lies with elected officials - but tech giants who shape our world

19 March 2025, 08:05 | Updated: 20 March 2025, 11:43

As the brilliant Netflix crime drama, Adolescence nears its devastating conclusion, Stephen Graham’s character is left grappling with an unthinkable reality: his 13-year-old son stands accused of murdering a female classmate.

Alongside his wife—brilliantly portrayed by Christine Tremarco—he struggles to comprehend how their seemingly ordinary, well-adjusted boy became entangled in a world of misogynistic influencers and online toxicity.

This is the central question the series poses: How? How does a child from a stable home, with a loving family and a well-adjusted sister, find himself at the centre of a murder inquiry?

Through four meticulously crafted episodes—each filmed in one continuous shot—Adolescence doesn’t just explore this question, it forces us to confront the unsettling truths about modern teenage life.

Isolation, digital disconnect and the insidious influence of online culture are laid bare in painful clarity.

One of the most chilling moments comes as the police enter the school attempting to understand what led to the tragedy.

Both Teachers and the police are at a loss, unable to connect or control the wayward students.

A frustrated young substitute teacher, Mr Malik, sums it up bluntly: “These kids are f**king impossible. I mean, what am I supposed to do?”

Yet, it is not the adults who hold the key to understanding—it’s the teenagers themselves.

In one striking scene, the son of the “blundering” investigating officer expertly played by Ashley Walters reluctantly explains the hidden language of social media: the subtle meanings behind different coloured heart emojis, the coded messages that exist beneath the comments section of “Insta”.

It is a stark reminder that while parents, teachers and even governments attempt to keep up, the reality of online culture is slipping further and further out of their grasp.

But the series doesn’t just explore the dangers of the internet—it exposes a disturbing truth: boys are being radicalised in plain sight.

With every click, every like and every video watched, algorithms funnel them deeper into echo chambers of hate.

What starts as fitness advice or self-improvement content seamlessly morphs into misogynistic rhetoric, conspiracy theories about feminism and glorification of male violence. 

Adolescence masterfully portrays how a lonely boy seeking validation online can be swept up in a tide of dangerous ideology before anyone even notices.

What makes Adolescence so powerful is its refusal to offer easy answers—because how could it?

Governments have tried and failed to regulate the digital spaces where these influences thrive.

The unspoken truth the drama exposes is that power no longer lies with elected officials but with the social media giants who shape our world from behind the screen.

The drama also highlights how the influence of figures like Andrew Tate extends far beyond the internet.

Young men are absorbing these messages and bringing them into real life—with devastating consequences.

The show makes it clear that this is no longer just an “online problem”; the beliefs these influencers peddle are fuelling real-world violence which include crimes against women.

The series is as gripping as it is harrowing.

It peels back the layers of modern adolescence, revealing the unseen battles playing out behind the closed doors of our children’s bedrooms, on screens that parents barely understand, in online conversations they are not part of.

Adolescence is not just a drama—it’s a wake-up call. And even so the issues feel agonisingly out of reach- it’s impossible to look away.

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Hugh French is a criminal barrister at Red Lion Chambers in London

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