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The quarter-century-long experiment of allowing humans access to, well, everyone and everything via the internet and social media is starting to show real results—and many of them are not good. In fact, it has been quite harrowing in many ways, as the works below demonstrate. While many technological advancements of the past have inspired disproportionate panic, as when people worried in the 18th and 19th centuries that books were addictive and mind-poisoning, these series, documentaries, and podcasts demonstrate some of the internet’s true horrors that must be addressed. Here, some of the best Peabody picks about the dangers of the internet.
‘Adolescence’
In this gripping limited series, 13-year-old Jamie Miller (an astonishing Owen Cooper) is arrested for murdering a female classmate. What’s revolutionary is that this isn’t a crime mystery; instead, the storytelling focuses on the ways that the crime affects the investigators and his family while also revealing the online “manosphere” sources that made such an act inevitable. With an intensity that’s heightened by the series’ high-wire act of production—each episode is a single take—Adolescence provides no scapegoats or easy answers. (More on that below from co-creators Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne.)
Where to Watch: Netflix
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: Adolescence
‘Audrie & Daisy’
This 2016 documentary delves into the stories of two teenage girls who were raped in separate incidents, one in California and one in Missouri, both of whom endured cyberbullying after the assaults. Using social media and court documents, the husband-and-wife directing team of Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk tell these two related, tragic stories, which begin with the girls’ assaults being caught on camera and end in destruction, anguish, and suicide. A difficult watch with a crucial message.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: Audrie & Daisy
‘Feminist Frequency’
Feminist Frequency was created by Anita Sarkeesian in 2009 as a video series exploring gender issues in pop culture, including video games, and it became a flashpoint in the #Gamergate online harassment campaign of the mid-2010s. Sarkeesian endured death and rape threats and doxxing all due to her “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” series. Feminist Frequency carried on, however, and continues now as a video podcast hosted by Kat Spada, exploring works such as Hairspray, Barbarella, and the most recent Oscar nominees.
Where to Watch: YouTube
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: Feminist Frequency
‘The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram’
In this documentary, Frontline and ProPublica investigate an online network of white supremacists dubbed “Terrorgram” because it spreads extremism and violence through loosely moderated platforms like Telegram. The work reveals how the group not only disseminated propaganda but actively recruited and groomed young individuals for acts of violence, growing from a few accounts to a large community focused on far-right terror. By analyzing chat logs and conducting interviews, the report highlights how various platforms have fostered extremist ideologies and the eventual arrests of individuals linked to the Terrorgram collective.
Where to Watch: PBS
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram
‘Adolescence’ on ‘We Disrupt This Broadcast’
“It takes a village to raise a child,” co-creator and star Stephen Graham said on The Peabody Awards and Center for Media & Social Impact podcast, “We Disrupt This Broadcast”. “And [co-creator] Jack [Thorne] said to me, ‘Yeah, but it also takes a village to destroy a child.’ And that was kind of what we based our whole thing on. We weren’t pointing the finger at anybody. We were just saying maybe we’re all accountable in some way, shape, or form.”
Listen to the Podcast Episode: PeabodyAwards.com