Can the violence of Squid Game damage the soul?

Can the violence of Squid Game damage the soul?

The violence of Squid Game, the most popular series currently on Netflix, can have a detrimental influence on sensitive souls, especially those of children.

Everyone is talking about it. In the office, with friends and even in the playgrounds. Squid Game has officially reached 111 million viewers, according to Netflix. This makes it the most watched series at launch of all time. This South Korean production tells the story of hundreds of indebted people who agree to participate in children's games. It is actually a huge survival game where the losers die in a way that is as grotesque as it is bloody. Squid Game is not recommended for children under 16 years old. However, the series is very popular with middle school students or even younger children. The production even predicts that many will dress up as characters from the series for Halloween.

For some time now, several schools have urged parents to be careful what their children are watching. The case of a primary school in Belgium, where children replicated Squid Game games in the playground, has appealed to many Internet users in recent weeks. "The children were playing in the yard, and suddenly a little girl started crying," says Sabrina Caci, the school's director. "The teachers got worried and that's when the girl said she played 1, 2, 3 sun and was hit in the face."

Most teachers took the situation seriously. If Squid Game explores interesting themes like the class struggle, this is not what catches the eye of children. They focus on the "game" aspect, mixed with that of "violence".

For the 1995 World Day of Social Communications, St John Paul II addressed Catholics on this subject.

Like all means of social communication, cinema, which certainly has the power and the great merit of contributing to the cultural and human development of the individual, can, on the other hand, stifle freedom, especially of the weakest, when it distorts the truth. It becomes like a mirror of negative behaviours, when, to "arouse violent emotions in order to stimulate the attention" of the viewer, it proposes scenes of violence and sex that offend the dignity of the person.

According to pope John Paul, this wilful excess of violence cannot be recognized as free artistic expression. Violence in the media is confusing for a young mind that does not yet differentiate between reality and imagination. A child can easily imitate and perceive as normal what he sees on the screen.

But the harmful effects are not limited to children. Constant exposure to violence is degrading to society as a whole. Young people and sensitive people are particularly vulnerable. Extreme violence also damages human relationships, feeds antisocial behaviour and weakens the moral fibre of society. Spirituality cannot flourish if it is constantly exposed to such violence. Squid Game is full of them. It would be wrong to assume that we are immune to this phenomenon.

• Philip Kosloski - Published on 19/10/21 on Aleteia