The dangers of social media underpin new Netflix drama "Adolescence," the story of a teenage boy radicalized online that's currently bowling over TV critics and grabbing politicians' attention across Europe. It might not prompt any rewrites of regulation in the UK or the EU, but it could exert pressure on regulators in implementing and enforcing online safety laws, perhaps giving them renewed appetite in the face of Trump administration efforts to warn Europe off action against US Big Tech platforms.
Social media is at the heart of the new four-part Netflix drama "Adolescence," which has hit the headlines around the world with its cautionary tale of a 13-year-old British boy radicalized online and arrested for murdering a female classmate.The attention grabbing extends to lawmakers and government figures across Europe. In focusing in harrowing detail on harms that young people encounter on social media, it has reignited debates about how effective UK and EU legislation is at addressing the issue.
European regulators told MLex they welcome the increased debate, while political leaders have been vocal, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He has extolled the show to lawmakers, telling them last week that "this violence carried out by young men, influenced by what they see online, is a real problem. It’s abhorrent and we have to tackle it."
As Netflix yesterday said the series would be available to screen for free in UK schools, Starmer held a roundtable with its writers to highlight "the devastating effect of misogyny on our society" and "the dangers of online radicalization," noting that no single policy could be a panacea.
Experts that MLex spoke to don't expect an explicit impact on policy and regulation, not least as the new US government promotes a backlash against restrictive tech regulation in the service of supporting US platform giants such as Meta Platforms, Google's YouTube, and X.
A US congressional committee recently even labeled EU and UK online safety laws as "censorship regimes" (see here and here).
In the UK, online safety advocates also question whether Ofcom’s appetite to go after Big Tech could be influenced by government pressure on regulators to cut red tape and nurture growth as well as the Trump administration's threats to retaliate over foreign enforcement of US companies (see here).
— Regulatory efforts —
Europe's core online regulators — Ofcom in the UK and the European Commission in the EU — both stress that while the new drama has drawn a burst of attention to online safety, they have been working for years on full regulatory frameworks.
The UK’s Online Safety Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act are key laws for keeping children safe online and holding platforms to account for their content. While critics repeatedly say they don’t go far enough, others argue they are still new and need time to be fully enforced (see here).
Among the most-mentioned concerns are how the laws address risks from legal but harmful content (see here) or how they deal with age verification (see here) — both topics that link to the harms showcased in the new TV drama.
“Netflix’s 'Adolescence' has ignited debate around the potential harms children face online, including misogyny and cyber-bullying,” an Ofcom spokesperson told MLex.
“New rules are in place that mean tech firms must protect people in the UK from illegal content online … This won’t answer all the complex issues the show raises, but it will help children to live safer lives online, and we’ll be holding companies to account."
Ofcom’s director of technology, Fred Langford, reminded a conference audience last week* that the show is fiction. While it does a great job of raising the profile of troubling issues, he argued, it doesn't provide insight into the working of the UK's online safety law, which addresses how platforms address challenges from the perspective of systems and processes.
“The Online Safety Act is not a content regime, although the content on platforms is an indication of how well the systems and processes are working,” he said.
Meanwhile, online safety discussions in Brussels also brim with references to "Adolescence," though one senior European Commission official stressed to MLex that “the topics discussed [in it] are topics that are covered by the Digital Services Act. They are topics we look at with the team in terms of compliance, implementation, enforcement already, and will continue to do so."
The EU regulator is already looking at the issue of young children being exposed to content that promotes "toxic masculinity," a term broadly used to describe misogyny among men. “Not because 'Adolescence' has come out now, but because it's a real-life issue," the senior official said.
Protecting children is already an enforcement priority for the commission, the official said. While heightened public and political attention “can free resources to make sure that you target the problems that matter in the public eye … I don't think a drama series and Netflix changes the way we enforce things. We are enforcing based on evidence and facts, and what's on television doesn't really change that."
Netflix has said it's "incredibly proud of the impact" of the show but has declined to comment on online safety policy issues, although its vice-president of content for the UK said in a statement that it is "sparking important conversations and helping articulate the pressures young people and parents face in today’s society."
— Pressures —
While flagship EU and UK legislation is unlikely to change, then, what of other measures often urged by online safety advocates, such as school bans on mobile phones or banning younger children from social-media apps? Here too, there has been an urgency of discussion, but little sign of regulatory change.
In the UK, pressure has been highest over the idea of banning phone use in schools. Opposition lawmakers two weeks ago tried to add a clause to a schools bill to make a ban mandatory in law, but it was voted down by the government.
Asked why last week, Starmer argued that legislation was “completely unnecessary,” saying most schools banned the use of phones already. “The battle is not with schools already banning phones," he said. "The battle, and this is an important emerging battle, is to ensure that the content that children are accessing, wherever they are, is suitable for their age."
Researchers are quick to dismiss the idea, too, that blanket bans on social media would stop children from using certain platforms, arguing that such measures could be counterproductive. So do teenagers — a UK youth committee last week published a report suggesting that Ofcom should instead adopt a “name and shame” strategy to expose platforms that fail to comply with the law (see here).
Both in the UK and in the EU, regulators already have enforcement powers to hold platforms to account and ensure they are mitigating risks, particularly when those could affect children and teenagers. But neither have yet enforced large fines on platforms or pushed them to change algorithms or systems.
"Adolescence" is certainly adding to the pressure that European regulators are facing to publicize platforms’ bad practices or hold them to account under the existing rules.
It remains to be seen how much effect this could have in influencing regulators' appetite for enforcement — especially with the picture complicated by the geopolitical context of Washington applying opposite pressure to leave US tech giants alone.
* Rephrain Showcase, Mar 26, London, Southbank Centre
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