Radicalised Adolescence? Hit series sparks calls to counter toxic masculinity

The Debate

The Netherlands is following the UK in launching initiatives to show Netflix's four-part series "Adolescence" in middle schools. Meanwhile, France's education ministry ponders tighter controls on teens exposed to hate speech and online porn. We ask about a fiction inspired by real-life cases of boys who went so far as to murder girls.

Are they tragic outliers or indicative of a genuine trend? A decade ago, this show was grappling with the issue of parents shocked to discover that their teens had self-radicalised online in their bedrooms. Back then, we were talking about jihadism. Today, it's about fears that men are somehow being cancelled or replaced, an allegation amplified by the likes of influencer Andrew Tate, who was recently sprung from a Romanian jail after alleged pressure from the Trump administration.

Have we gone from bro culture to a war of the sexes; a war against women that starts at a young age? And what to do about it?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.