Education Minister Elisabeth Borne has announced that the powerful British mini-series will be introduced into French classrooms to confront the influence of toxic online ideologies on young people.
The British drama series "Adolescence", which explores the troubling impact of misogynistic content on social media, is set to be used as an educational tool in schools, France’s Education Minister Élisabeth Borne announced on Sunday.
Speaking on the LCI parliamentary channel, Borne revealed that the producers of the Netflix series had granted the French government the rights to use it in classrooms.
As a result, the Ministry of Education will develop and introduce five educational sequences based on the series to help students engage with the issues it raises.
Posting on X, Borne wrote: "Featuring situations of violence, social media use and distress, this series is a useful educational tool for raising awareness and supporting students."
Already shown in some secondary schools across the UK, selected excerpts from the mini series are, according to Borne, “highly representative of the kind of violence young people can experience.”
These segments will be accompanied by tailored teaching resources and will be made available from fourth year onwards.
The average ages of fourth year students in the French secondary school system is between 13 and 14 years of age.
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Combatting mysogynist ideology
In late March, Downing Street announced that the series would be incorporated into secondary school lessons across the UK to prompt discussion and help “prevent young boys from being drawn into a vortex of hatred and misogyny.”
Borne stressed that the initiative aims to raise awareness among young people of the dangers of "screen overuse, the normalisation of online violence", and the rise of so-called "masculinist" ideologies – misogynistic networks that promote hatred and violence against women.
Adolescence follows the story of 13-year-old Jamie, a British teenager from a quiet English town who is arrested after being accused of fatally stabbing a classmate.
Through police interviews and emotional sessions with a psychologist, each episode examines how harmful online ideologies may have influenced Jamie, while also portraying the confusion and helplessness of adults trying to make sense of social media’s darker side.
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Anti-Semitic incidents on the rise
In a separate development, Borne also addressed rising concerns over anti-Semitism in schools, following the discovery of anti-Semitic graffiti at a primary school in Le Havre.
She announced that her ministry would soon "update guidance for headteachers and teaching staff" to help them better respond to emerging forms of anti-Semitism.
This includes tackling issues such as the “refusal to teach” and the “shift from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism,” she said.
An investigation into the graffiti incident, which was discovered last Thursday, is currently under way.
