COUNTERTERRORISM POLICE IN London have urged parents in the UK’s capital city to be aware of signs their children may be vulnerable to radicalisation and violent extremism, after the acclaimed television series Adolescence sparked a debate on the subject in recent weeks.  

Adolescence is a fictional drama series from Netflix about a teenage boy accused of murdering a girl from his class at school after online bullying and a turn towards ‘incel’ ideology. 

The term incel (involuntary celibate) refers to a misogynistic online subculture of people – mostly men – who are unable to find romantic partners and turn their resentment on women. There have been some murder cases associated with the ideology. 

The series has become a major talking point in UK politics since it came out in March of this year. So much so that Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with its creators this week and said the show served as “a torch that shines intensely brightly on a combination of issues that many people don’t know how to respond to”.

Detective Superintendent Jane Corrigan, the London coordinator of the UK’s controversial ‘Prevent’ programme, said Adolescence has “sparked some incredibly important debate about dangerous rhetoric and ideologies that young schoolchildren can be exposed to through online and social media platforms”.

Corrigan said that while Adolescence is a fictitious series, “the story is grounded in a reality that we are seeing more and more in our work within counterterrorism policing”.

“Young people are being referred into us, and in almost every instance, a big part of their vulnerability is coming from what they are doing, seeing and consuming online.”