Woman whose son, 11, was 'red-pilled' like on Netflix's Adolescence exposes worrying first signs
A woman has told of her horror after realising her son was 'red-pilled' in a similar fashion to the central character of Adolescence.
The hit Netflix series has hit close to home for Rachel Parker, as she has revealed how her son Spencer got sucked into the online 'manosphere' just like Jamie did.
A host of parents have been left both concerned and confused by the terminology, code words and 'incel' content, which a host of kids are being exposed to these days.
Adolescence did a phenomenal job of highlighting how the warning signs that a child might be being indoctrinated by misogynistic online content can easily be overlooked by mums and dads.
Advert
Which is why Rachel is keen to warn other parents of what to look out for, which could suggest their children have been 'red-pilled' - just like her son was at the age of 11.
Take a look at this:
She explained that alarm bells first starter ringing four years ago when she noticed Spencer repeating bizarre things he'd heard on the internet from people like Andrew Tate.
The mum said she was 'thrown for a loop' when the young lad casually told that her 'women are gold diggers' and that he was sick of everyone 'blaming men for everything'.
Rachel explained she immediately challenged her son about why on earth he was spouting such stuff, as she believes communication is key in this kind of situation.
The 33-year-old, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, said: "I remember thinking, 'That's weird for an 11-year-old to say', so I asked him where he'd heard that and he told me that he'd seen some men talking about it online.
"He watched normal videos of people playing video games and then out of nowhere this information started leaking in.
"Because he watched one video of it, another one came in and then he liked that and then another one came in.
"We would talk about other things that came up in these videos, such as women 'not respecting themselves 'and women being on OnlyFans.
"At that age he didn't even know what [OnlyFans] was - but he jumped on the hate train."
Rachel revealed this came as a huge shock to her, given that Spencer has been raised by strong female figures as her sisters, mum and grandmas have all been very involved in his upbringing.
"It kind of threw me for a loop, because I have raised him to be aware of feminist issues and aware of the system that he lives in," she said. "He mentioned watching Andrew Tate to me.
"I never squashed any part of his personality to make him feel like he should have needed to find community in a place like that.
"He was having to deny his own lived experience because he is essentially raised by women. His dad's not around so it's been just me and my family that have raised him.
"All of a sudden he was turning his back on us and picking these beliefs up. It upset me more than anything and I wondered what I had done."
She realised that ignoring her concerns would 'have been the wrong thing to do', so decided to face the issue head on with Spencer - even though it was 'probably one of the hardest things she's done'.
"It was the most important thing I've done as a parent as well," explaining that she sat down with her son to help him understand that he shouldn't be offended by harsh words against men if he isn't behaving badly.
Four years on, the teenager said that he now 'cringes' at the idea of listening to people like Tate - while Adolescence really hammered home just how concerning incel ideology can be.
Spencer's proud mum said: "He doesn't normally put his phone down, but he put his phone down to watch it and he was really engaged with it.
"It was emotional for sure. I think watching it made me wonder, 'Where this is going to stop, where does it end? How far does it go?'
"Don't let the fear of being judged stop you from getting the help you need for your child. The important thing when it comes to starting these conversations is to just start them."
Spencer added: "Watching Adolescence, it was very interesting to see how it plays out when a boy is exposed to that stuff online and has to experience the social expectations of having a girlfriend, which is why I focus more on school work instead of that.
"I now find this online content cringe. It's so embarrassing to watch those people have these opinions so loudly, knowing that people are going to believe it without question."
Rachel said her lad now sees Tate as 'a caricature of the red pill movement', saying: "He once liked him but now he thinks he's a joke. He is now in a mindset of not wanting to be like those men he saw on those videos."
Spencer has even been calling his pals out for using misogynistic language, as his mum said: "I was really proud of him for that, it shows growth."
Topics: Adolescence, Netflix, UK News, Parenting, Andrew Tate, Social Media
Olivia Burke