When Netflix launched Adolescence in March 2025, it shortly grew to become rather more than simply your common tv present. Not solely did the four-part restricted collection sweep a number of award ceremonies, nevertheless it dominated information headlines for weeks and prompted widespread dialogue throughout the UK about poisonous masculinity, violence towards girls and women, and on-line security.
For these of you who haven’t watched it, Adolescence centres round a seemingly peculiar household whose house is raided by police, ensuing of their 13-year-old son being arrested on suspicion of murdering his feminine classmate. Investigations reveal that he has been a sufferer of cyberbullying on social media, and that he has additionally been participating with content material from the manosphere. The manosphere refers to a community of on-line communities centered on males’s rights, who promote misogyny, hyper-masculine beliefs, and oppose feminism (Over et al., 2025a). The manosphere is especially regarding as a consequence of its affect with youthful, weak audiences, and the potential to incite hate, violence and discrimination (Milne & Baker, 2025; Over et al., 2025b).
Given growing discussions about younger individuals’s security, notably on-line, Bond and colleagues (2026) have been curious to discover the affect of Adolescence on how the information media reviews on younger individuals’s social media use. Because the authors spotlight,
Information media reporting does greater than convey data; it contributes to shaping public perceptions and might play a task in social change, typically in methods which are each substantial and far-reaching.
So, what has been the affect of Adolescence?
Strategies
The authors carried out a mixed-methods content material evaluation of on-line information articles revealed by 10 main UK and Irish information organisations, together with a combination of broadsheets (e.g., The Guardian) and tabloids (e.g., Each day Mail). They systematically searched information web sites utilizing key phrases referring to social media and younger individuals and included articles in the event that they have been revealed 90-days pre-Adolescence airing or 90-days post-Adolescence airing.
Recognized articles have been coded utilizing a structured framework that examined totally different options of an article, together with:
- Total tone in direction of younger individuals’s social media use
- Creator gender
- Whether or not reporting was reassuring, balanced or alarmist
- If suggestions have been explicitly linked to an proof base
- References to poisonous masculinity, incel tradition, the manosphere, or associated ideas
- Point out of weak or at-risk teams
- Accountability attributed to governments, dad and mom, faculties and expertise corporations
- Whether or not articles mentioned constructive points of social media.
Two researchers double-screened 10% of the included articles, with moderate-to-substantial settlement on necessary variables.
Lastly, a reflexive thematic evaluation was undertaken on private narratives and quoted accounts inside recognized articles to look at how journalists used particular person tales to border discussions about on-line harms.
Outcomes
Media protection on younger individuals’s social media use considerably elevated after Adolescence was launched. A complete of 360 related articles have been recognized; 121 have been revealed within the 90 days pre-Adolescence, and 239 have been revealed afterwards. This improve was notably marked within the UK (92 articles vs 193 articles) in comparison with Eire (29 articles vs 46 articles), the place The Guardian and The Impartial have been the most important contributors.
Most articles have been written by girls (50.6%) moderately than males, and journalists (89.4%) moderately than non-journalists, like teachers or clinicians. The commonest matter was younger individuals’s social media use (31.4%), adopted by on-line security (26.9%) and poisonous masculinity (18.6%).
A number of adjustments in reporting accompanied this elevated post-release media protection, together with:
- A shift in focus from social media use and on-line security to poisonous masculinity and violence towards girls and women
- Considerably extra destructive protection
- A better proportion of alarmist articles and fewer balanced ones
- Extra references to weak and at-risk teams
- Suggestions centring round restriction, resembling telephone bans (though no articles linked these suggestions to identifiable proof)
- Much less duty being positioned on social media corporations, and extra duty positioned on dad and mom and faculties (in Eire)
- Extra private tales, which have been extra prone to reference incel tradition or poisonous masculinity.
Qualitative evaluation generated 5 themes based mostly on private narratives from younger individuals, dad and mom, lecturers, clinicians, and policymakers:
- Habit and time drain; “You see everybody choosing up their telephones each 5 to 10 minutes.”
- Publicity to hurt and radicalisation; “I’ve had boys refuse to talk to me … as a result of I’m a lady they usually observe Andrew Tate … These have been 10-year-olds.”
- Parental dilemmas, regulation and duty; “We’re caught between a rock and a tough place … When you don’t give your youngster [a phone], you danger them being the odd one out.”
- Coping and resilience methods; “I’ll flip my feedback off so individuals can’t touch upon me.”
- Damaging affect of social media, parental bereavement and requires change; “Daily the federal government has delayed… extra younger lives misplaced.”
Conclusions
Bond and colleagues conclude that the discharge of Adolescence coincided with necessary adjustments in UK and Irish media reporting about younger individuals’s social media use. Throughout the 90 days after Adolescence’s launch, protection grew to become extra frequent, extra destructive, and extra prone to concentrate on poisonous masculinity, vulnerability and on-line harms, whereas the constructive points of younger individuals’s digital lives remained largely absent.
The authors notice that this isn’t the primary time a Netflix present has had such a big effect on public discourse, citing 13 Causes Why (learn Angharad, Alys and Stanley’s Psychological Elf weblog on this matter right here). They emphasise that:
The in depth media protection surrounding each Adolescence and 13 Causes Why could have the potential to behave as a constructive power […] if it prompts open dialogue of complicated and infrequently hidden points, together with suicide, poisonous masculinity, misogyny and on-line security […] Nonetheless, as seen beforehand with 13 Causes Why, the media communication and protection additionally carry dangers […] overly emotive or prescriptive reporting could distort public understanding and contribute to reactive moderately than evidence-informed responses to complicated psychological well being and social points.
Strengths and limitations
There are numerous strengths to this research, together with its blended strategies design. By combining quantitative content material evaluation with qualitative thematic evaluation, the researchers have been in a position to describe not solely how media protection modified after Adolescence, but in addition what was being mentioned and the way these narratives would possibly relate to the noticed change. This supplies a richer understanding than both method alone. The use of a scientific, predefined coding framework is one other energy, because it implies that the included articles have been assessed (comparatively) constantly, which will increase the transparency and reproducibility of the research. Moreover, together with main information retailers from each the UK and Eire broadens the research’s relevance and permits comparability throughout two media landscapes, moderately than drawing conclusions from a single nation’s reporting.
Nonetheless, there are additionally a number of limitations:
- The comparability solely covers a brief time frame pre- and post-release of Adolescence, which makes it troublesome to know whether or not this was a one-off occasion or a part of a longer-term pattern. It could be attention-grabbing to see the authors repeat this research one 12 months later (however this could nonetheless be difficult, see my final level).
- The research included quite a few statistical comparisons with out adjustment for a number of testing. This will increase the chance that some statistically important findings (notably the smaller ones) occurred by probability, which decreases the reliability of the research.
- The authors say that they adopted Braun and Clarke’s (2021) steerage for reflexive thematic evaluation, and but the outcomes are largely descriptive and extra aligned with inductive content material evaluation, which is what the paper title appears to trace was the case. Relatedly, the authors don’t focus on reflexivity (which is essential in RTA!), they usually additionally don’t consult with their positionality. It’s an attention-grabbing paper, however the qualitative evaluation may have gone into higher depth.
- Whereas the authors report that they discovered no articles explicitly linking suggestions to identifiable proof, it is very important keep in mind that information journalism doesn’t all the time cite analysis papers or coverage reviews in the identical manner that tutorial writing does. The shortage of cited proof doesn’t imply an proof base doesn’t exist, nevertheless it does make it harder for readers to guage the authenticity and trustworthiness of what they’re studying.
- Lastly, as acknowledged by the authors, the research interval coincided with wider debates about on-line security laws and high-profile incidents involving youth violence and on-line misogyny. Because of this the research can’t decide whether or not Adolescence alone contributed to the noticed adjustments in media protection.
Implications for apply
So we’ve spent this complete weblog discussing Netflix, social media, and media protection, however what does this imply for younger individuals’s psychological well being?
Media reporting performs an necessary position in shaping how clinicians, lecturers, policymakers and households perceive psychological well being. Good journalism can improve consciousness of necessary points, encourage help-seeking, and stimulate crucial coverage discussions. On the identical time, reporting that overstates or simplifies complicated proof could contribute to reactive moderately than proportionate responses, reinforce public misconceptions, and shift consideration in direction of interventions that aren’t but supported by strong proof (Davies et al., 2025). Whereas we don’t know a lot about this within the context of reporting round younger individuals’s social media use, analysis on suicide reporting has demonstrated that the way in which psychological well being is communicated can affect public attitudes and behaviours (Niederkrotenthaler et al., 2020). These matters should be reported with due diligence.
For clinicians, the findings reinforce the significance of approaching discussions about younger individuals’s social media use with nuance. Households could arrive at appointments influenced by latest headlines or tv reveals (McCready & Rohn, 2025). Somewhat than reinforcing black-or-white narratives that social media is both dangerous or innocent, clinicians may also help younger individuals and oldsters interpret dangers within the context of the broader proof and the person’s experiences (Higson-Sweeney et al., 2025).
For researchers, the research highlights an necessary and sadly well-known hole between proof and dissemination. The authors discovered that many suggestions in media protection weren’t explicitly linked to identifiable proof. Researchers subsequently have a task not solely in producing high-quality proof, but in addition in speaking it clearly to the general public. Not solely does this contain remaining updated on the most recent tendencies and popular culture, however it might additionally imply participating with journalists in order that the nuance of analysis findings are precisely reported.
Assertion of pursuits
Nina Higson-Sweeney has no conflicts of curiosity to declare.
Hyperlinks
Main paper
Laura Bond, J. Z. Ong, Ariane Natin, Níall Lally, & Fiona McNicholas (2026). Framing youth and social media: mixed-methods media discourses earlier than and after Netflix’s Adolescence. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2026.10697
Different references
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic Evaluation: A Sensible Information. Sage.
Davies, J., Cadwallader, S., Black, L., Hickman Dunne, J., & Panayiotou, M. (2025). The illustration of adolescent social media use: a scientific assessment and content material evaluation of UK newspaper articles. BMC Public Well being, 25(1), 3067. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23897-5
de Cates, A., Cole-King, A., & Kutcher, S. (2017). Suicide-related web searches following the discharge of 13 Causes Why. The Psychological Elf.
Higson‐Sweeney, N., Badenoch, D., & Tomlin, A. (2025). Debate: Standing up for science–the right way to fight misinformation in youngster psychological well being? 5 suggestions for disentangling truth from fiction. Youngster and Adolescent Psychological Well being, 31(1), 74-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.70055
McCready, A. M., & Rohn, Ok. C. (2025). “It’s a Wonderful Line”: Guardian and Educator Perceptions on the Results of Adolescent Digital Media Use on Psychological Well being. Journal of College Well being, 95(7), 532-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.70028
Milne, B., & Baker, C. R. (2025). From ‘villains’ to ‘idols’: exploring teenage boys’ conflicting attachments to manospheric masculinities. Gender and Training, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2025.2568407
Niederkrotenthaler, T., Braun, M., Pirkis, J., Until, B., Stack, S., Sinyor, M., … & Spittal, M. J. (2020). Affiliation between suicide reporting within the media and suicide: systematic assessment and meta-analysis. BMJ, 368. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m575
Over, H., Bunce, C., Konu, D., & Zendle, D. (2025a). Editorial Perspective: What do we have to know in regards to the manosphere and younger individuals’s psychological well being?. Youngster and Adolescent Psychological Well being, 30(3), 272-274. https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12747
Over, H., Bunce, C., Baggaley, J., & Zendle, D. (2025b). Understanding the affect of on-line misogyny in faculties from the angle of lecturers. PloS one, 20(2), e0299339. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299339
