Adolescence writer Jack Thorne has called for a ban on selling smartphones to under-16s, saying they must be kept from kids ‘in whatever way possible’.
The miniseries has stormed the streaming charts since its release ten days ago, and tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who murders a female classmate after being influenced by online misogyny.
Thorne, who co-wrote the drama with star Stephen Graham, has an eight-year-old son, Elliott, who he hopes to keep from owning a smartphone until he turns 14.
Thorne told The Times: ‘I don’t think I’m brave enough to say, when 70 to 80 per cent of his class have got smartphones, “no, you need to be isolated.” I don’t want him to be isolated like that.
‘But it will never be in his bedroom until he’s old enough to cope with what it is to have that instrument in private.’
Research for the drama took Thorne to the dark corners of the toxic online manosphere frequented more and more by young men.
Experiencing the dangerous ideology for himself opened Thorne’s eyes to quite how powerful it can be, he said, as the argument made by masculinist influencers is ‘attractive’.
The 46-year-old said it made him concerned for his young son and nephews.
Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne (pictured) has called for a ban on selling smartphones to under-16s
The hit Netflix miniseries examines violent misogyny fuelled by ‘incel’ culture online
He argued that creating better role models for young men could take years, while certain crucial preventative measures can be implemented immediately.
He continued: ‘I would ban smartphone sales up to the age of 16. Why do kids need smartphones? They can have phones but not smartphones. Certainly keeping kids away from smartphones in whatever way possible, I think, is vital.’
Thorne likened his plan to a law proposed by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which would have banned young people from ever being able to smoke legally.
His bill would have made it a crime to sell tobacco to anyone born after January 1 2009, thus, in theory, preventing them from forming an addiction in adolescence.
Thorne has recently been targeted by online trolls questioning his sexuality, ethnicity and ‘whether I am a man or not’.
Some have hurled anti-Jewish slurs at the writer, although he is not Jewish.
Adolescence examines ‘incel’ culture, which has been blamed for the use of social media in bullying.
But in a moment of life imitating art, Thorne divulged that it is he who is now being pursued by online combatants.
The cast and crew attend a special screening for Adolescence in London on March 12, 2025
Stephen Graham, co-writer alongside Thorne, also stars as Eddie Miller in Adolescence
He told BBC Two’s current affairs programme Newsnight: ‘It’s very interesting.
‘I’ve been on the television a little bit, and what’s been happening in the last few days is my picture is being circulated with questions (made about) my masculinity, questions as to whether I’ve got too much oestrogen (a group of female sex hormones) in my system, questions as to whether I’m a man or not.
‘Weird things like people saying I’m Jewish, when I’m not, it’s been very odd, and it’s given me a taste of something that’s very strange.
‘I’m very comfortable with how I look, I don’t mind it, but it’s been scientifically very interesting.’
