Adolescence: 'School teachers must respond to toxic material'

BBC News

05-04-2025

The father of a murdered young woman wants teachers to respond to issues raised in the TV series Adolescence such as toxic material on social media.Nick Gazzard's daughter Hollie, 20, was killed in the Gloucester hair salon where she worked in 2014 after ending a year-long relationship.The Netflix drama, which was set to be screened to all secondary schools in the UK, examines a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a girl from his class and explores themes of misogyny.Mr Gazzard said showing the series in schools was "great", but added teachers needed to "respond to those issues they're seeing".
Adolescence has sparked a national conversation about the impact of social media and "manosphere" influencers, such as Andrew Tate, as well as language such as "incel".Incels, short for involuntary celibate, is a term used by men who blame women for their inability to find a sexual partner. It is an ideology that has been linked to terror attacks and killings in recent years such as the Plymouth shooting in 2022.Mr Gazzard told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "It [the series] brings a lot of issues, particularly around social media and the damage it does to young men. "A lot of people are aware of this but perhaps not aware of the depth and the damage it's causing."
Mr Gazzard set up the Hollie Gazzard Trust following his daughter's death and has been campaigning about domestic abuse and stalking since. He was made an OBE by the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace on 28 March.He said the trust would support schools in helping teachers respond to "harmful damage" young men see on social media which is "causing violence against women and girls"."We're trying to bring it back from that damaging content which they're learning online," he said."Professor Adeela Shafi, professor of education in youth justice at the University of Gloucestershire, said the education was "really for us as society"."The cold language children may be using - that we as adults are completely outside of - we don't understand that," she said."That's one of the most powerful things that's come through for us as parents."She added: "The overwhelming knowledge of how our children are exposed to things that we would never want them to be exposed to, and be exposed to things we wouldn't have even thought about when we were younger."