The Quiet Disconnect. Families, the Internet, and What Adolescents Face Online.

I’ve been sitting with this one for a while. I didn’t want to rush into hot takes, and I didn’t want to drop any spoilers too soon. But now that the dust has settled and most people have had time to see and digest it, let’s get into it.

The recent Adolescence series on Netflix has hit a nerve for a lot of people, and rightfully so. It’s raw, uncomfortable, honest, and for many, painfully relatable. It’s a mirror held up to our collective digital reality.

This show cracked open the silence surrounding what young people are actually going through online. Their struggles, their social circles, their inner lives, most of which happen far away from the watchful eyes of the adults who love them most. I'm also aware that not all teens are going through this, but this blog is about the ones who may be.

When I was younger, we didn’t know how much the internet would grow and we definitely didn’t have the tools to help us shape our digital footprint. We were just figuring it out as we went along. While we can only evolve with it, we can absolutely put things in place to help navigate it, especially for the next generation, and I believe that's really important.

We owe it to young people to meet them with empathy, not judgment. They’re growing up in a world we never had to navigate, one that’s always online, always performing. Many are just trying to belong, to feel seen, and to figure themselves out in the middle of it all. I’m sure some of you can resonate with a time like that in your own lives, but imagine it amplified with the internet!

It’s not about blaming them for being “too online.” It’s about understanding that the internet can be both empowering and overwhelming, often at the same time.

I wanted to discuss a little more about my most recent work on Tozi, a digital literacy app developed at the DCU Anti-Bullying Research Centre in collaboration with Vodafone and Childline by ISPCC. We’ve been deeply considering the realities young people are facing online. We’re not just reacting to what’s happening, we’re proactively creating content and tools that acknowledge these challenges and help support safer, more informed digital experiences for the future. To also be clear, Tozi was created for young audiences but we encourage adults to take a look at the app, we think they could learn a lot from it too. To download Tozi Click Here!

Our mission is to bridge the ever-widening gap between the digital world young people live in, and the support systems that often don’t even know how to start the conversation.

For me personally, the most gut-wrenching takeaway from the show was the disconnect between parents and their children’s online lives. This is not about blaming parents, let me be crystal clear on that. They’re doing their best in a digital landscape that’s constantly shifting under their feet.

But here’s the truth - we need to keep educating and equipping families. Parents can’t protect kids from things they don’t even know exist. And kids won’t open up if they feel misunderstood, judged, or worse, punished.

We need connection, not surveillance. Most importantly, we need empathy, not control.

So where do we go from here?

We keep the conversation going. We keep building tools like Tozi. We create safe spaces for education, curiosity, and honest talk. We stop pretending it’s “just the internet” because, for young people, it’s real life!

This show might have opened our eyes, but it’s up to us to keep them open.

Let’s meet young people where they are. Let’s make digital spaces safer. Let’s listen to them, talk to them. And above all, let’s not wait for another wake-up call.

Teresa Di Manno