Did Netflix’s Adolescence change how the media reviews on teen social media use?

When Netflix launched Adolescence in March 2025, it rapidly turned rather more than simply your common tv present. Not solely did the four-part restricted collection sweep a number of award ceremonies, but it surely dominated information headlines for weeks and prompted widespread dialogue throughout the UK about poisonous masculinity, violence in opposition to girls and women, and on-line security.

For these of you who haven’t watched it, Adolescence centres round a seemingly strange 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 because of its affect with youthful, susceptible audiences, and the potential to incite hate, violence and discrimination (Milne & Baker, 2025; Over et al., 2025b).

Given rising discussions about younger individuals’s security, significantly on-line, Bond and colleagues (2026) had been curious to discover the impression 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, generally in methods which can be each substantial and far-reaching.

So, what has been the impression of Adolescence?

Strategies

The authors carried out a mixed-methods content material evaluation of on-line information articles printed by 10 main UK and Irish information organisations, together with a mix of broadsheets (e.g., The Guardian) and tabloids (e.g., Every 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 had been printed 90-days pre-Adolescence airing or 90-days post-Adolescence airing.

Recognized articles had been coded utilizing a structured framework that examined completely different options of an article, together with:

• Total tone in direction of younger individuals’s social media use
• Writer gender
• Whether or not reporting was reassuring, balanced or alarmist
• If suggestions had been explicitly linked to an proof base
• References to poisonous masculinity, incel tradition, the manosphere, or associated ideas
• Point out of susceptible or at-risk teams
• Duty attributed to governments, mother and father, colleges and expertise corporations
• Whether or not articles mentioned constructive facets of social media.

Two researchers double-screened 10% of the included articles, with moderate-to-substantial settlement on essential 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 had been recognized; 121 had been printed within the 90 days pre-Adolescence, and 239 had been printed afterwards. This enhance was significantly marked within the UK (92 articles vs 193 articles) in comparison with Eire (29 articles vs 46 articles), the place The Guardian and The Unbiased had been the biggest contributors.

Most articles had been written by girls (50.6%) fairly than males, and journalists (89.4%) fairly than non-journalists, like teachers or clinicians. The commonest subject was younger individuals’s social media use (31.4%), adopted by on-line security (26.9%) and poisonous masculinity (18.6%).

A number of modifications 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 in opposition to girls and women
• Considerably extra destructive protection
• The next proportion of alarmist articles and fewer balanced ones
• Extra references to susceptible and at-risk teams
• Suggestions centring round restriction, equivalent to telephone bans (though no articles linked these suggestions to identifiable proof)
• Much less accountability being positioned on social media corporations, and extra accountability positioned on mother and father and colleges (in Eire)
• Extra private tales, which had been extra more likely to reference incel tradition or poisonous masculinity.

Qualitative evaluation generated 5 themes based mostly on private narratives from younger individuals, mother and father, lecturers, clinicians, and policymakers:

1. Dependancy and time drain; “You see everybody choosing up their telephones each 5 to 10 minutes.”
2. Publicity to hurt and radicalisation; “I’ve had boys refuse to talk to me … as a result of I’m a girl and so they observe Andrew Tate … These had been 10-year-olds.”
3. Parental dilemmas, regulation and accountability; “We’re caught between a rock and a tough place … Should you don’t give your little one [a phone], you danger them being the odd one out.”
4. Coping and resilience methods; “I’ll flip my feedback off so individuals can’t touch upon me.”
5. Adverse impression of social media, parental bereavement and requires change; “Each day the federal government has delayed… extra younger lives misplaced.”

Conclusions

Bond and colleagues conclude that the discharge of Adolescence coincided with essential modifications in UK and Irish media reporting about younger individuals’s social media use. Throughout the 90 days after Adolescence’s launch, protection turned extra frequent, extra destructive, and extra more likely to give attention to poisonous masculinity, vulnerability and on-line harms, whereas the constructive facets 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 subject right here). They emphasise that:

The intensive media protection surrounding each Adolescence and 13 Causes Why might have the potential to behave as a constructive pressure […] if it prompts open dialogue of complicated and infrequently hidden points, together with suicide, poisonous masculinity, misogyny and on-line security […] Nevertheless, as seen beforehand with 13 Causes Why, the media communication and protection additionally carry dangers […] overly emotive or prescriptive reporting might distort public understanding and contribute to reactive fairly than evidence-informed responses to complicated psychological well being and social points.

Strengths and limitations

There are a lot of strengths to this research, together with its blended strategies design. By combining quantitative content material evaluation with qualitative thematic evaluation, the researchers had been capable of describe not solely how media protection modified after Adolescence, but additionally 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 signifies that the included articles had been assessed (comparatively) persistently, 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, fairly than drawing conclusions from a single nation’s reporting.

Nevertheless, there are additionally a number of limitations:

• The comparability solely covers a brief time period 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 might be fascinating to see the authors repeat this research one 12 months later (however this may nonetheless be tough, 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 vital findings (significantly the smaller ones) occurred by likelihood, 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 talk about reflexivity (which is essential in RTA!), and so they additionally don’t consult with their positionality. It’s an fascinating paper, however the qualitative evaluation might have gone into higher depth.
• Whereas the authors report that they discovered no articles explicitly linking suggestions to identifiable proof, you will need to do not forget that information journalism doesn’t all the time cite analysis papers or coverage reviews in the identical manner that tutorial writing does. The dearth of cited proof doesn’t imply an proof base doesn’t exist, but it surely does make it tougher 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. Which means the research can not decide whether or not Adolescence alone contributed to the noticed modifications in media protection.

Implications for observe

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 essential position in shaping how clinicians, lecturers, policymakers and households perceive psychological well being. Good journalism can enhance consciousness of essential points, encourage help-seeking, and stimulate essential coverage discussions. On the identical time, reporting that overstates or simplifies complicated proof might contribute to reactive fairly than proportionate responses, reinforce public misconceptions, and shift consideration in direction of interventions that aren’t but supported by sturdy 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 subjects have to 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 might arrive at appointments influenced by latest headlines or tv reveals (McCready & Rohn, 2025). Fairly than reinforcing black-or-white narratives that social media is both dangerous or innocent, clinicians might help younger individuals and fogeys 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 essential 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 additionally in speaking it clearly to the general public. Not solely does this contain remaining updated on the most recent traits and popular culture, however it could 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 evaluation 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 best way to fight misinformation in little one psychological well being? 5 suggestions for disentangling truth from fiction. Baby 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 Effective Line”: Father or mother 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 evaluation 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?. Baby 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 colleges from the angle of lecturers. PloS one, 20(2), e0299339. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299339

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