Warning, Netflix show "Adolescence" may raise more issues than it reveals.

Despite the dominant discourses, showing it in its entirety to a teenager should raise questions. Some fifth-grade students are currently watching the series Adolescence alone. This content, although designed to address sensitive themes of adolescence, is not suitable for this age group, especially without adult mediation.

So I know, Elisabeth Borne thinks it's a great idea! ➡️ The scheme proposed by the ministry targets selected excerpts in the 8th grade, supervised by a teacher, to discuss them with educational benchmarks. (There's already reason to question a teacher's ability to name what is necessary and decipher what is needed...) Letting children watch it alone, without filters, without explanation, can have an impact that is difficult to identify.

⚠️ Some scenes are problematic: • The scene with the psychologist, in particular, shows a biased interview, a psychologist who does not control the setting and pushes the child to the limit, far from the neutrality she should maintain... with questions and a clear intention (of the scene) to shock rather than to understand. This can create confusion, discomfort, or rejection. • More broadly, the series uses emotional content at the expense of nuance. This can have a lasting impact on children, without them having the tools to process what they see.

👉 I strongly advise you to watch it beforehand, read critiques from vigilant psychologists, and not let children watch it alone. It can also have a lasting influence, as it can increase an already present climate of suspicion among girls towards boys.

📊 A YouGov survey (2024) revealed that 53% of young women aged 18 to 29 prefer to encounter a bear rather than a man in the forest, while 31% choose the man. A striking figure, revealing a structural fear, but one that should not be amplified by poorly framed fiction.

Considering the long term, associated with a context where trust relationships between genders are already fragile among young people, the birth rate is collapsing in all developed countries. This kind of series, without a critical framework, can feed fear instead of developing understanding and indicators to promote protection and supervision. Boys can internalize a diffuse guilt, even self-rejection. Girls can integrate a relationship of mistrust as the norm, where the relationship with the other should be built on complexity, explicitness, and nuance. We know today that certain emotionally impactful narratives, especially when they touch on intimacy or fear, can become implicit reference points for young people. Without distancing, they gradually integrate as frames of reference: what is expected of a boy, what is feared from an adult, what one thinks one should feel in a given situation. This is what is called a normative effect: a subtle but lasting influence on how social representations are constructed. When this influence is based on vague or emotionally charged messages, it can reinforce binary views, create mistrust, or set rigid expectations in relationships.

🧠 Effective awareness should not stun, stigmatize, or oppose, but should equip each person to understand relational, emotional, and social mechanisms. However, Adolescence shocks more than it educates. And without mediation, it can fracture more than it can enlighten.

I invite you to delve into these questions before letting your teenager watch it alone.