About a week ago, I sat one night watching regional news (HR, our Hessen public TV network). They wanted to hype this new problem.....teenagers and younger kids....watching the South Korean series 'Squid Game' off Netflix streaming video.
To be blunt about it.....'Squid Game' has taken off as a trendy topic in Germany, and everyone has some opinion or view of the series.
I've watched it myself, and generally grade it as a superior series....well scripted, and with a fair number of twists. On violent content (scale of one to ten)....I'd give it a solid ten.
So the news journalists went at the regional problem....kids were watching the series and getting a bad influence from the violence.
Here's the thing....German kids took the series and created a playground game called 'Red Light, Green Light'. If you fail in the game....you fall to the ground and pretend to be dead. This got German social workers all hyped up because six to ten year old kids were performing the game.
Around five years ago, I could already see a problem developing where kids were asking for a Christmas gift of an entire year's subscription to Netflix, and getting it. They'd sit on buses heading home from school, and watching various shows on their smart-phone. I don't think parents really got the angle to this business....you'd have to control content/viewing....if the kid was under age twelve. I suspect if you went around to a hundred local kids in age 12 group....probably three-quarters of the group have access to Netflix, with no control over content.
'Squid Game' coming back for a second season? Oh yeah. And I might go and suggest that the kids aren't that stupid....they might ask if there are other South Korean series worth watching? You know.....like 'Kingdom' (the zombie series).
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