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10th Oct 2021

Children are now apparently copying violent scenes from Squid Game

Trine Jensen-Burke

Children are copying violet scenes from Netflix show Squid Game

This is worrying.

Unless you have been living under a rock lately, you will no doubt have heard of Squid Game, the newly released Netflix horror series where characters compete in playground games with gruesome twists to win a cash prize worth €33million.

The South Korean show, which is both gripping and truly chilling, sees the characters take part in terrifyingly twisted playground games and those who fail the tasks are executed by a masked death squad in pink.

The show is rated 15 and deemed ‘not appropriate for primary school aged children’ and yet, it would appear that children are indeed watching the show, which sees characters being shot in the head, organ harvesting and contains warnings of suicide and sexual violence references.

According to the New York Post, parents are now being warned not to let their children watch the Netflix horror series after schools report pupils have been observed re-enacting violent scenes.

The paper reveals that even children as young as primary school age have been copyng the horror show, and earlier this week, a school in England wrote to parents warning that imitating the gruesome scenes in the creepy horror is ‘not appropriate nor acceptable’.

The school said it was causing ‘conflict’ between pupils and stressed the Netflix show, rated 15, is ‘not appropriate for primary school-aged children.’

Elsewhere, a Belgian school has also issued a warning following reports of students playing a dangerous punching game inspired by the Netflix show.

“We [must remain] vigilant so that this unhealthy and dangerous game is stopped!” read the Facebook public service announcement, which was posted Tuesday by the Municipal School of Erquelinnes Béguinage Hainaut.

They released the statement after discovering that several children were re-creating the “Red Light, Green Light” pastime featured on “Squid Game,” in which cash-strapped players compete in deadly playground contests for prizes.

On the show, the contest sees participants walk towards a murderous puppet after it calls out “green light.” When the doll shouts, “red light,” the contestant must freeze before the dummy turns around or they’ll be shot dead.

In the Belgian schoolyard version, the loser gets punched instead of executed.