School’s warning over TV hit
A PRIMARY school has issued an urgent warning to parents after reports that pupils as young as eight are watching a violent Netflix show which has taken the world by storm.
Squid Game was released worldwide on the online streaming service in mid-september and has since become the platform’s most watched series ever.
The show, created by South Korean director and screenwriter Hwang Dong-hyuk, involves a contest in which hundreds of players play a series of games for the chance to win a huge sum of money. However, failure comes with deadly consequences.
Richmond Park Primary School in Carmarthen has now raised concerns that children as young as those in Year 4 are either watching Squid Game, despite it having an age rating of 15+, or have downloaded and played third-party apps on their phones which are associated with the hit show.
The school is warning parents that the drama series has “a dark twist to seemingly innocent games”, including the depiction of characters being “violently killed off in ways that grow more twisted as the games grow more intense”. They’ve also expressed concern that young children are watching “high levels of gore, death, violence, and physical assault”, along with “graphic depictions of suicide, murder, and sexual assault”.
A spokesperson for the school said: “Children and young people are likely to know about the show via word of mouth and because it is so popular on social media. They may be unaware of the extent of gore, death and violence the show contains. It also focuses on adult themes that are not appropriate for younger sensibilities. For young people who live with mental health issues, they may be triggered by some of the content.”
As well as children watching the series itself, staff at the school have received reports that pupils have also been playing an app associated with Squid Game, one that has been handed a rating of just 3+ on certain platforms by PEGI (Pan European Game Information), a video game content rating system. The school has warned that pop-ups and ads that appear on the app could easily lead to young children being redirected to inappropriate sites elsewhere online.
As a result, they are imploring parents to keep a close eye on what their children are watching and playing, and to remind them that Squid Game is something aimed more at adults.
“As a parent or carer, keep a watchful eye on the content that your children are viewing,” the school added.
“Speak to them openly and chat about how they have been spending time on their devices; let them ask questions too. Ensure that the parental controls are activated on your child’s device and that age-restricted child profiles are properly set up, as well as any on-demand services available through the family TV (such as Netflix, in this case) to prevent inappropriate content being streamed.
“If you see your child replicating the challenges from the show or hear them talking about scenes and characters from Squid Game, it would be a timely opportunity to discuss with them that the programme is not intended for children, that much of the content would be inappropriate for their age, and that the violence is very realistic and often upsetting.”
Netflix confirmed last week that Squid Game has officially become the company’s most watched series, attracting more than 110m viewers in just four weeks.
It beat the record previously set by period drama Bridgerton, which launched on the streaming service on Christmas Day last year.