Reports are emerging that primary schools have issued warnings to parents following student re-enactments of Netflix’s Squid Game series.
While the series carries a M15+ rating, the games featured in Squid Game have seen widespread popularity among students recreating their own versions of the tense competitions – with their own brutal consequences.
A Belgian school sent out a warning to parents as students were caught playing a dangerous punching game attributed to Squid Game.
In a Facebook post published Tuesday, October 5, the Municipal School of Erquielinnes Béguinage Hainaut announced, “We [must remain] vigilant so that this unhealthy and dangerous game is stopped!”
Squid Game follows a group of contestants desperate for money as they compete in a series of children’s games for an enormous cash prize. The catch? If you’re eliminated, you die.
Trying to prevent my best friend from falling in love. #squidgamenetflix pic.twitter.com/Vh9CAmKASD
— Montie (@luwi_vuitton) October 8, 2021
The game ‘Red Light, Green Light’ sees contestants in Squid Game approach a murderous puppet, and freeze when the puppet shouts “red light”. In the show, contestants who fail are shot dead.
However, in the Belgian schoolyard version, the loser is punched.
The school is encouraging parents to make their children “aware of the consequences“ of participating in the violent game, and have vowed to punish participants.
The school also clarified that the traditional version of ‘Red Light, Green Light’, which doesn’t involve any violent consequences, is still acceptable.
Schools in Ilford and Kent in the UK have supposedly issued similar notices, reiterating that students found playing the game would be punished and their parents sanctioned.
Tell me you’re watching #squidgamenetflix without telling me you’re watching Squid Game. I’ll start pic.twitter.com/UTFzZ3Nc0F
— Amy Carlson (@Amyyycee) October 9, 2021
In a now-deleted tweet quoted in Mirror UK, a London father claimed he had received a letter from his children’s school warning parents of the consequences of students re-enacting the game.
“Can’t believe my kids’ school has had to send a letter telling parents that kids are playing their own version of Squid Game and that parents will have sanctions applied if their kids mimic Squid Game. The popularity of this show is next level.”
When questioned about the global popularity of the Squid Game, writer and director Hwang Dong-Hyuk stated, “We did target a global audience from the start, but this fever wasn’t anything I had expected. I mean, who could have?”
