Adolescence to be shown in French schools to raise awareness of misogyny
The British series Adolescence, about a 13-year-old boy who stabs a female classmate to death, will be shown in French secondary schools to raise awareness of misogynist violence bred by social media.
Élisabeth Borne, the education minister who initially rejected calls to screen the series in schools, changed her mind after watching it. Five lessons have been developed around themes that would 'make pupils aware of the risks of social networks, violence and sexism', Borne said.
They will show pupils aged 14 and over the dangers of 'overexposure to screens and the trivialisation of violence' along with the 'manosphere' doctrines that promote brutality against women. France follows Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium in showing the series, created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, in state schools.
• As a mother of a teen boy, Netflix's Adolescence is terrifying
Sir Keir Starmer said Adolescence, in which Owen Cooper plays the teenager Jamie Miller, highlighted the 'emerging and growing problem' of divisive social media content from influencers such as Andrew Tate, which can shape the mentality of boys. Downing Street said the series would help prevent boys being 'dragged into a vortex of hatred and misogyny'.
Like Britain, France has experienced a wave of knife murders and wounding among teenagers. In April a 15-year-old boy stabbed four pupils in a lunch break at their school in Nantes, killing a 15-year-old girl with 57 stab wounds.
The suspect, described as a loner, had no clear motive. In January in Paris, a 14-year-old boy called Elias was fatally stabbed by youths aged 16 and 17 after he refused to give them his phone.
This month Adolescence reached a total of 141.2 million views, making it the second-most-watched English- language series on Netflix, according to Variety, the US industry magazine.
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