Schools vs Squid Game

By: Joey Hudson

Released on September 17th, Squid Game took the world by storm since its release and has become one of the most popular series Netflix has produced. The Korean drama-horror series has pulled 111 million views on Netflix and was #1 on Netflix in the USA for 24 days, just recently dropping out of it’s #1 spot after the release of You and its third season. Despite that, Squid Game remains at #1 in multiple other countries and is continuing to be trending on multiple social media platforms such as TikTok and Twitter.

With the popularity of Squid Game, millions of people have watched the show to understand the hype around it, even those that are too young to watch the show. The show is rated TV-MA (mature audiences only, unsuitable for anyone younger than 17). The reason why the show is rated TV-MA is due to the graphic content contained in the show as well as hard hitting themes that are more catered to a more mature audience. However, multiple people have ignored the rating for Squid Game and have watched it anyway, causing concern among schools across the world.

In multiple different schools, issues were sent to parents to not let their children who are under the age limit for the show to not let their child watch the show. In Bedfordshire, England, the Central Bedfordshire Council sent an email to parents saying, “There have been some concerning reports recently about children and young people ‘playing’ Squid Game whilst at school. We strongly advise that children should not watch Squid Game. The show is quite graphic with a lot of violent content.” The email was sent to parents after an incident at one of Ilford’s schools that kids were ‘behaving aggressively’ on the playground while replicating the same children’s games that are seen on the show.

Another school in Belgium also expressed concerns regarding the show to parents. On Facebook, the Municipal School of Erquelinnes Béguinage Hainaut posted, “We must remain vigilant so that this unhealthy and dangerous game is stopped!” Kids at the Belgian school were seen playing the popular game ‘Red Light, Green Light,’ a kids game that is seen on Squid Game where one person calls out “red light” and the other participants have to stop moving entirely. Once the caller calls out “green light”, the participants can continue to move forward until red light is called once again. This is repeated until everyone has reached the caller. In Squid Game, if a contestant was caught moving after red light was called, they were killed and eliminated. In the Belgian school, in order to replicate the show, participants caught moving would be punched in the face. 

The matter being presented at schools regarding the Squid Game series is an ongoing concern for both schools and parents that both have to be aware of it in order to protect their children and students from content that could be hard to watch and influential on developing minds. If you plan on watching Squid Game, be aware of the content that is contained within the show before watching and if needed, watch the show with a trusted adult who gave you permission to watch the show.