For any decent parent of a teenager, watching Adolescence was probably like being hit by a bus—except instead of a quick, merciful end, you were left semi-conscious and forced to watch your child scroll through TikTok while some internet fraudster filled their head with populist twaddle. The drama didn’t just highlight the dangers of social media influence; it was a wake-up call for parents who have (understandably) been clinging to the hope that their kids are smart enough to see through the shit being fed to them online. Sadly, many of them aren’t.

But before we all collectively panic and start locking up the Wi-Fi router and taking hammers to iPads, let’s take a step back and try not to go into an understandable meltdown. While Adolescence was pretty bleak and definitely depressing, its impact could be far-reaching—if it jolts parents, educators, and policymakers into doing something beyond the usual handwringing, it could be one of the most positive dramas of a generation.

Parents: Time to Get Uncomfortable

There are plenty of good parents out there. The problem is a lot of them have slipped into the warm, fuzzy delusion that simply “doing their best” is enough, especially if they are working long hours to pay bills that seem to increase by the week. Let’s face it, it is easy to feel like a good parent when your teenager isn’t in jail and hasn’t been recruited into an underground crypto scam run by a fake Martin Lewis. But Adolescence served as a blunt reminder that the bar has to be a bit higher than just keeping them alive.

Right now, it appears that too many young people are idolising grifting “tough guy” influencers and puffed-up girl bosses whose entire business model is convincing kids that the world owes them something. These social media fraudsters don’t care about your child’s well-being—they care about engagement metrics and ad revenue. Their entire philosophy boils down to: “Be louder, meaner, and more controversial, and people will listen.” Which is great advice—if your lifelong ambition is to become a professional twat.

Character Over Clicks: A Job for Society

Of course, parents can only do so much. Society as a whole needs to step up. Governments, schools, and youth centres must work harder to hammer home one simple truth: being a decent human being is more important than chasing online fuckwitts.

Unfortunately, teaching values like kindness and respect isn’t as marketable as selling young men on the idea that women are the enemy or convincing teenage girls that their value is measured entirely by how much attention they get. Schools should be reinforcing the idea that intelligence, empathy, and resilience are what build a good life—not the ability to go viral on Instagram for throwing a tantrum in a rented blacked out Range Rover with Carlos Vandango wheels.

We also need to stop pretending that 15-year-olds have the critical thinking skills to navigate social media’s cesspool on their own. Schools should outright ban social media and phone use during school hours. Call it draconian, call it unrealistic—call it whatever you want. But at least kids might spend a few hours a day focusing on something other than whether their latest post has been seen by a complete stranger who sells powder to make your profile pout look better.

The Evolution of Parenting

But let’s be real—most of this does start at home. In my opinion one of the most important things any parent can do is shake off the delusion that their own upbringing was flawless and copy it. Parenting is an evolutionary process: you try to keep the good bits (value of money, liberal thinking and so on) ditch the bad (alcohol, anger, stress etc) and try to raise a child who isn’t a total liability to themselves and society. The dad in Adolescence seemed an okay chap but he was still carrying the demons of his violent father.

Personally, I think success in parenting is measured by how much better your kid turns out than you. I was okay with babies, but my son is leagues ahead of where I was. That’s a win. He’s not a carbon copy of me—he’s learning from me and improving on it. That’s got to be the goal. The idea that parenting should be about legacy-building (“One day, son, you too can be exactly as great as I was”) is a level of narcissism usually reserved for dictators. And yet, you’d be surprised how many people genuinely think like this. My kids like me, we have a great relationship, but I’d be embarrassed if they thought I was the model human they should aspire to be.

Taking on the Social Media Monsters

The uncomfortable truth is that even the best parents are up against a machine that is far better at influencing their kids than they are. Social media giants have absolutely no incentive to fix this problem because outrage and controversy make them money. Why stop 14-year-olds from consuming toxic content when it’s so profitable?

There should be real consequences for these companies allowing underage users to be manipulated by fraudsters, misogynists, and self-appointed life coaches who barely have a life themselves. If a person’s entire career revolves around screaming at their phone about how to be a “real man” or a “high-value woman,” that should be your first clue that they’re full of shit.

Eliminating the Bottom-Feeders

Most of all, we need a full-scale, unapologetic crackdown on the influencers who promote bullying, racism, sexism, and general cuntishness. These people contribute nothing to society. They don’t create, they don’t help, they don’t improve anything. Their only function is to shout louder than the next idiot while raking in cash from the easily impressed.

And let’s not pretend they’re harmless. They thrive on manipulation, selling an illusion of strength and success to vulnerable young people who are still figuring themselves out. And for what? To line their pockets with ad revenue? To sell another useless self-help course?

Nothing good comes from these people. Nothing. They’re parasites who exploit insecurity for profit. The only way to beat them is to make sure kids don’t fall for their nonsense in the first place. And that starts with parents, schools, and society refusing to let them fill the gaps we’ve left open.