Adolescence star backs calls to ban social media for under 16s

Australian parliament passed landmark legislation in Novemeber banning social media platforms from allowing users under 16 to access their services

Adolescence star Faye Marsay has backed calls to prevent children under the age of 16 from having social media accounts.

The Game of Thrones star, who plays Detective Sergeant Misha Frank in the hit Netflix drama about a teenage boy accused of murdering a female classmate, has said that the UK should follow Australia’s landmark ban on social media for under-16s.

In November, Australia’s parliament passed an online safety amendment bill banning social media platforms from allowing users under 16 to access their services, threatening companies with fines of up to AU $50 million (£22.2 million).

Adolescence follows Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a 13-year-old boy who is accused of brutally murdering a young girl. The show has become an instant success and the centre of a national conversation on incel culture, misogyny and the online “manosphere”. As discussed in Parliament, there are calls for it to become mandatory viewing in schools.

In an interview with the i, Marsay said she believes in “eyeball to eyeball” conversation, “not just tapping words onto a screen where you don’t have to feel the consequences”.

Speaking about the law in Australia, she said: “I think we should have the same rules here.”

“We have to move forward with it. It can be useful. I’ve never been keen on social media.”

One of the most striking twists in the series comes when it emerges that the police have misinterpreted the online communications between the children involved in the case, because they don’t understand the implications of certain emojis.

Faye Marsay and Ashley Walters in ‘Adolescence’ (©2024 Netflix, Inc.)

Marsay said: “We don’t give teenagers enough credit for how smart and articulate they are. If we reach out to them to ask questions about their lives, then eight times out of 10 you’re going to get a meaningful conversation.

Reflecting on the success of the show, Marsay said it has been “intense, overwhelming, and all a bit of a whirlwind”.

“Keir Starmer was speaking about the show yesterday (31 March) – saying we need to address the ideas of toxic masculinity influencing really young kids on social media. They’re talking about showing Adolescence in schools as part of the curriculum,” she said.

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“The second before I jumped onto this call with you, a friend in Stockton told me it’s sparked a huge debate there about knife crime. It’s hitting everybody, isn’t it? Which is great, because that’s precisely what it was made to do.”

The show has broken a UK TV ratings record, becoming the first streaming show in history to top the UK’s weekly TV ratings.

Marsay plays Detective Sergeant Misha Frank in ‘Adolescence’ (Getty Images)

The series’ first episode was watched by 6.45 million people in its first week, according to ratings body Barb. This meant it beat out British television staples including The Apprentice and Death in Paradise.

It also marks the biggest viewership for any streaming TV show in the UK in a single week, a record previously held by Netflix’s Fool Me Once in January 2024.

The second episode of the show came in second with 5.94 million views, The Apprentice and Death in Paradise were in third and fourth place with almost 5.8 million respectively. Adolescence dominated the rest of the chart with its third episode in fifth place with 5.14 million and the final instalment drawing in 4.65 million.