One of the most popular shows on Netflix in 2025 is Adolescence, a British drama about a 13-year-old boy named Jamie who is arrested because he’s suspected of stabbing a female classmate to death after he felt she was cyberbullying him online.
The fictional show is having a real-life impact, starting a conversation worldwide about teens’ mental health and to what extent social media should be restricted on children’s smartphones.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer watched the show and met charities and the show’s creators Stephen Graham (who plays Jamie’s father) and Jack Thorne to brainstorm policy actions. Graham and Thorne have been invited to parliamentary meetings on online safety, serving as important middlemen, connecting charities that have spent years working on these issues to policymakers.
Thorne himself doesn't think kids under 14 should have access to social media on their smartphones. Some Dutch schools will be screening Adolescence in classrooms, and Netflix is making the show free to watch in secondary schools across the UK. The show’s creators have been visiting schools to talk to students about what they’re going through.
“We're the start of the conversation,” Thorne says. ”The point is to try and create a conversation between students, their parents and their teachers about what they've experienced and how they think they can cope with it.”