Adolescence's creator backs a social media ban for kids. He means well – but it’s the wrong move | Katrina vanden Heuvel

The dangers young people face online are all too clear. But the solution is pragmatism, not prohibition

The latest hit Netflix show has surpassed 100m views and cracked the top five of the platform's all-time biggest English-language series - without CGI monsters, ornate gowns or Jenna Ortega. Instead, Adolescence is a four-episode limited series about a 13-year-old British boy accused of stabbing his female classmate to death. And as the story unfolds, the pernicious influence of cyberbullying and social media radicalization on the main character comes into focus.

The show has sparked conversations about the much-discussed male loneliness epidemic and the pervasive influence of hypermasculine online personalities. It has set off public debate from India to Australia to the United States about how we raise boys in an era when social media increasingly serves as an endless trough of misogynist messaging. In the UK, where the series became the first streaming show to top the country's TV ratings, it has stirred intense conversations on news panels and in parliament. Even the prime minister jumped into the fray after watching the show with his teenage children.

In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of the Nation, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she has contributed to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times