Most of these kids’ YouTube videos are quite innocuous by themselves. This doll often features in video thumbnails for Squid Game-related children’s YouTube content. The “Red Light, Green Light” scene has become one of Squid Game’s most widely shared moments: the giant animatronic doll that acts as a deadly motion sensor in this game has been heavily meme-ified.

This videogame, which is popular with kids, enables users to program games and share them with other users. This YouTube content includes “ How to Draw Squid Game” character videos, and Squid Game themed gameplay videos from online videogame Roblox.

The show is certainly a craze within children’s digital cultures.Ī number of successful channels on YouTube Kids (designed for viewers under 12) have capitalised on the Squid Game trend. While the recent warnings urge parents not to let their children watch Squid Game, young children’s awareness of the violent show more likely relates to its pervasive presence on social media, which has extended to viral content on TikTok and YouTube, popular with teenagers and children. Social inequality and hyper violence: why the bleak world of Netflix's Squid Game is a streaming phenomenon After each challenge, these traditional children’s play spaces tend to be left soaked in blood and littered with piles of corpses. Further emphasising the show’s twisted take on child’s play, these games are staged in highly stylised arenas, such as an adult scale children’s playground. In Squid Game, characters compete for a cash prize by participating in challenges that augment classic Korean children’s games, with the “losers” being killed at the end of each round. In Australia, similar warnings have been issued by educators in Sydney and Western Australia. This includes warnings from an Australian school that children as young as six are recreating games featured in the dark and gory hit show.Ī council in Southern England recently sent an email to parents urging them to “be vigilant” after receiving reports “young people are copying games and violence” from the show.

The latest controversy to arise around Squid Game, which is rated MA15+ in Australia, relates to the interest it has sparked amongst young children.

The dystopian South Korean horror series Squid Game has become Netflix’s most watched TV series, but it is quickly becoming as controversial as it is popular.

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