‘It’s a war in a children’s game version,’ says psychologist about the ‘Round 6’ series

The recently released “Round 6”, the South Korean series on Netflix, drew attention for dealing with themes like wild capitalism, egalitarian totalitarianism and social inequality.

With the streaming service’s most-viewed debut mark, the narrative follows 456 indebted people who enter a challenge in which the winner will win 46 billion won (approximately R$210 million). However, when someone loses a game of games, fate is death. At the end, there will only be one live participant, who will also be the prize winner.

The games to which the participants are submitted bring a particularity — they are typically children’s games, like tug of war. From there, discussions emerged about the impact of putting moments of children’s fun in macabre contexts and extreme violence.

The issue became more critical when cases of children who had already watched the program and reproduced what they saw on the screen were reported, even though the age rating is 16 years old.

Belinda Mandelbaum, professor of psychology at USP (University of São Paulo) and coordinator of Lefam (Family Studies Laboratory), says that the series brings “a perversion of children’s play, because it is removed from its usual context […] and it turns into a situation of absolute threat and violence”.

For her, children’s games, like tug of war, are essential in stimulating essential elements for a person’s life, such as teamwork and healthy competition. In the case of the series, this is distorted by the addition of violence, the possibility of imminent death and the extreme financial need of the characters.

Mandelbaum also states that there are elements of violence in children, but it is important to associate them with healthy and constructive aspects during childhood so as not to cause problems in their development.

“I may have more aggressive impulses, but I can express this by writing a story, painting a picture or being interested in war themes, for example,” he says when referring to children.

Children’s games also make up these positive ways of dealing with violence during the early years because they have elements like contention and competition. However, there are always rules to preserve the limits of the people involved in the games, making these moments healthy for minors.

In the case of the series, that doesn’t happen. “Either you win or you just die,” says Mandelbaum.

This is another point that the psychology professor draws attention to — the program does not treat loss as something normal. “Life is always made up of gains and losses and we need to teach this to children. But [na série não]: either you are a winner all the time or you are literally dead.”

Psychiatrist and coordinator of the Department of Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents at Santa Casa do Rio de Janeiro, Fábio Barbirato is also concerned about “Round 6”. “[A série] it is atrociously aggressive. And it’s not just about aggression, there are also issues of sexuality that children aren’t prepared to see.”

The psychiatrist says that it is not possible to measure the exact impacts that the program can have on children as it is still very recent, but he cites research that proves that violent content and attitudes encourage the development of aggressive behavior for younger people.

“You have millions of developmental studies that show that kids watching these shows are more likely to lose empathy,” he says.

Empathy is listed by the doctor as very important to be worked on in childhood and adolescence because it is very difficult for someone to develop it when they are adults.

For Marcelo de Vasconcellos, a researcher at the CDTS (Center for Technological Development in Health) at Fiocruz, it is not possible to say that media, such as series and games, have an impact on the formation of violent behavior, “even because violence is a multi-causal phenomenon” .

“Research shows that there is no violent media influence on violent behavior. What we see is that people with violent behavior tend to like it. [desse tipo de conteúdo], but this seems to be much more of a correlation than a cause,” he says.

Examples of young people imitating behavior seen in entertainment programs, such as the case of “Round 6” itself, also “does not imply that [a criança] he wants to do that for real”, says the researcher.

“Children manage to make this migration from fantasy to reality in a very transparent way, something that can scare even the parents”, he says.

Mandelbaum also sees problems in relation to the economic issue that the series addresses. She says that most young people follow the family’s financial life and that this is important for their development.

The problem is that the story involves indebted people who go through financial needs and, therefore, accept to participate in this challenge that can lead to their own death.

The little ones, when consuming content of this type, may think that it is normal to submit to extreme situations due to financial needs, explains the psychologist.

“Children are exposed to this ideology: a world in which society is no longer concerned about their unemployed, their indebtedness, there are no public policies, there is no protection”, he says.

On the other hand, Barbirato indicates that this aspect is secondary because minors still do not have as many financial notions. “A child of seven, eight, nine or ten years does not see this [problema do] money,” he says.

Netflix was approached to comment on the effects the series could have on young people, but did not respond until the story was finalized.

Dilemmas surrounding the content of the series also relate to the role of parents in preserving what their children consume. “The indicative rating of the program is 16 years old, so the ideal was that there would be no children below that age watching”, says Vasconcellos.

The researcher says that the indication of age is not a censorship, as parents are free to create, but “it is an attempt to deliver [de forma equilibrada] the most suitable for each age group”.

“We can be pretty safe [sobre a classificação indicativa] because there is not only the Brazilian consensus, there is also the international consensus on [a idade adequada] for various media”, he explains.

In addition, monitoring the activities of children and teenagers is also something parents need to do. “There are interesting things on the internet for children, but it all depends on follow-up”, says Mandelbaum.

For her, excessive use of the online environment can prevent participation in other educational activities essential for child development, such as games, games and interactions with other people.

Another point is the fact that the internet facilitates access to inappropriate content for minors. Barbirato reports cases of young people who, through the Tik Tok social network, had access to suicidal and self-harm content.

“Parents have to be aware of what their children are seeing and doing on the phone, in the media or on the computer in order to limit this”, he says.