While Netflix's mega-hit, "The Squid Game," is scorching television worldwide and gaining record viewing, experts in child development warn of the series, calling for restrictions on viewing among children and teens.
Dr Sandra Wheatley, a psychologist and developmental expert among young people and young children in the UK, noted that “parents who allow the series to be watched by young children are harming them.
The series may develop in these children a problem with their social abilities. "
Dr. Wheatley explains that the series actually causes people to stand aside while a friend is hurt, and even worse, it causes people to join in hurting him. In this respect, the series has a very bad effect on children, especially in elementary and middle school age.
According to her, young children are not sophisticated enough to understand the context of the violence in the series, and they do not necessarily make the difference between it and their reality in life.
"Many children respond to the difficult events in the series with questions such as 'Why is no one helping them there?'. There are behaviors in the series that obviously we do not want our children to internalize," she explains.
"Kids imitate the scenes."
The Squid Game, Photo: Netflix
The British expert is not alone in his opposition to watching the series at a young age.
An elementary school principal in London addressed an open letter to the parents of the children at the school and expressed genuine concern about the series.
"I see children playing and recreating scenes from the series. These scenes express indifference when another person is hurt or bullied. It is a reversal of the values we educate them to include helping others and caring. There are examples of behavior in this series that we really do not want children to imitate," he wrote anxiously.
The principal's letter comes after a wave of reports from elementary schools around the world, in which the educators testify that the children are recreating and playing scenes from the series.
In this regard, a primary school teacher in London wrote that "it really frustrates me as a teacher, and I have a lot of conversations with students about the series, to explain the gap between the series and reality. The thing is that in the end parents also have a responsibility to take care of their children Can handle the effects of such content on its own. "