We need to talk about Adolescence

by Brenda Cuby, CEO GibSams

The Netflix series Adolescence has sparked powerful conversations around the world. The story follows Jamie, a 13-year-old boy accused of a violent crime, and takes a deep look at the social pressures and online influences that can push young people towards dangerous ideas and actions.

As the CEO of GibSams, an organisation that has offered a confidential listening service, championed mental health, and advocated for well-being in Gibraltar since 2017, I believe it’s important we talk about these issues and how they resonate within our community.

Adolescence highlights challenges we are seeing more often in our own community—challenges that can have a profound impact on young people’s lives.

HARMFUL ONLINE SPACES

One of the main messages in Adolescence is how young people can be drawn into harmful online spaces.

During the 2022 Mental Health and Wellbeing Festival for Schools that GibSams delivered in partnership with the Department of Education, the harm caused by social media on young minds featured prominently.

Over this now annual event, we invited experts from Beyond, a youth mental health charity in the UK, including their CEO Louisa Rose, to address teachers, students and their caregivers on her presentation, “Social Media, Friend or Foe”.

One of the biggest eye-openers of this talk was when the presentation’s attendees were asked to check their phone usage to determine how many years that they would spend on our devices if they lived to 80+ years.

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESSURE

Adolescence’s main character, Jamie, struggles with the pressures exerted by social media, contributing to his feelings of isolation and inadequacy.

Sadly, this is reflected in our real world too.

In 2017, teenager Molly Russell died by suicide after viewing harmful content found on social media platforms.

In October 2024, her father, Ian Russell MBE visited Gibraltar on behalf of the Molly Rose Foundation as one of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Festival speakers, alongside Dr Susie Davies from PAPAYA (Parents against phone addiction in young adolescents).

During the Festival, we found that although students had an awareness of these issues and the potential harm they presented, the addictiveness of the tech seemingly made it so much harder for the students to step back from it.

Students’ caregivers were not aware of the sheer scope of the problem and confided that the language and meanings used by the students with regards to emojis was confusing.

A DISCONNECTED GENERATION

We have noticed an uptake on callers using GibSams’ helpline that mention the impact that social media is having on their mental health, whether it is as a result of a lack of self-esteem, self-acceptance or the constant stream of unrealistic and enhanced images they compare themselves online.

There is a generation growing up more disconnected than ever before.

There are pressures on them to constantly be available, and unlike someone like me, who recalls a time when you did not need to be contactable 24-hours a day, they do not know how it feels to be disconnected from their online world.

Therefore, it is vital that more awareness is raised around this topic and that opportunities are created for people to switch off.

Simple things like turning notifications off on our devices or taking the phone out of our bedrooms at night or having a central charging point in your household that all devices go to sleep in and removing phones from the dinner table.

More significantly, there is a growing dialogue from experts such as social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book The Anxious Generation and campaigners such as Smartphone Free Childhood about the need to delay our children’s access to smart phones and social media for as long as possible.

If, as a community, we all come together to create new boundaries around our phone usage, then change is possible, and our collective phone addiction issues can be challenged from a point of love and support.

GibSams supported the Global Unplugging Day in March (https://gibsams.gi/global-unplugging-day-event-2025) and will be supporting the UK Unplugging Day on the 22nd June.

Several members of our organisation will be taking part in a digital detox for the month of April to reclaim back some time given to their phone usage.

HAVE CONVERSATIONS EARLY

The issues in Adolescence aren’t just on screen. Toxic attitudes and harmful online content are real, and they are here. But there’s hope.

At GibSams, we believe in early conversations. Parents, carers, teachers, and anyone who works with young people have a role to play. Listening without judgement is key.

Creating spaces where young people feel safe enough to talk about how they’re feeling—and what they’re experiencing online—is vital.

So, what will you commit to do today? Will you check to see which app you are spending the most time and choose to spend less time on it? Will you choose to make mealtimes a screen free option? Turn off notifications on your devices, even if it is only for an hour a day?

Let us know your suggestions on what you will commit to doing to reduce your phone usage.

As a charity, we are committed to offering support and helping our community understand these issues better. Whether it’s through training, public talks, or direct support services, we are here to help.

Our face-to-face and chat line services are open Monday to Friday 2-5pm and our helpline 116123, chat and WhatsApp (www.gibsams.gi) are available every day of the year 6-11pm.