Parents' Guide to Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord

Movie NR 2021 96 minutes
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Common Sense Media Review

Barbara Shulgasser-Parker By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 15+

Cocky teen sells illegal drugs online; language, violence.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 12+

Based on 1 parent review

What's the Story?

SHINY_ FLAKES: THE TEENAGE DRUG LORD tells the unsettling true story of a bright 19-year-old German computer whiz named Maximilian Schmidt who created and singlehandedly ran an online store called Shiny_Flakes for a couple of years from his childhood bedroom. The enterprise generated around four million Euros in revenues. He brazenly sold openly on the internet, becoming a kind of Amazon of illegal substances, using the German postal service as his unwitting couriers. He was paid in advance and much of the proceeds seems to be in bitcoin, funds the police still can't find. Although he was meticulous in covering his tracks both online and in the real world, mailing parcels from different mailboxes around Leipzig, using few couriers, and doing most of the work himself, an armed police SWAT team raided his bedroom in 2015 and seized large amounts of cocaine, MDMA, uppers, downers, and illegal prescription drugs. He's an enthusiastic participant in re-enactment scenes created by documentary director Eva Muller, including rubber-gloved handling of mock merchandise as well as measuring, packaging, and shipping the goods. He also seems to enjoy re-enacting his arrest. He's smacked in the face by the actors playing cops, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed. Crime may be punished here, but not severely enough to make this criminal embarrassed or remorseful about his misdeeds. He evades the question of whether he has hidden assets from his criminal activities while he powers through the local waters in his speedboat. Using records Schmidt kept of customer names and addresses, the police opened 4,000 criminal investigations of buyers. As of March 2021, Schmidt has been under investigation for a new drug scheme. At one point, after he's been caught, convicted, and jailed, he verbally abuses a civil servant at a courthouse window, telling us all we need to know about who he is.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say ( 1 ):
Kids say : Not yet rated

Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord is disturbing on many levels. Canny viewers will see Schmidt as the arrogant, haughty, disdainful, superior, and possibly dangerous character he is, someone who looks down on others and believes the rules don't apply to him. But more impressionable, younger viewers may see him and his accomplishments as heroic and seek to emulate his methods. It doesn't help that in the effort to provide precise and accurate reporting, this documentary offers a veritable how-to on running an untraceable online illegal drug emporium. Given that Netflix has already launched a three-season drama based on Schmidt's drug selling career, this documentary seems like a stamp of approval on the young man's unrepentant audacity and cleverness.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why remorse matters. Why do you think it's important to learn from one's mistakes? Do you think Schmidt learned anything about being a decent law-abiding citizen from his experiences, or only about how to evade law enforcement?

  • Do you think drug dealers exploit their customers? Some argue that people will buy drugs one way or another, so the sellers aren't responsible for harm that may come to buyers. Do you think Schmidt may bear responsibility for promoting dangerous addictions? Why or why not?

  • Do you think Schmidt viewed his illegal actions as a game, allowing him to demonstrate that he was more intelligent than the investigators? What do you think that says about Schmidt as a person? Would you want to be friends with him? Do you think he's trustworthy? Why or why not?

  • Schmidt's website promised it wouldn't maintain records of transactions, identities, and addresses of customers. Despite that promise, he kept detailed spreadsheet records of everything. Do you think he betrayed his trusting customers, some of whom were prosecuted for buying illegal drugs? Why or why not?

Movie Details

  • On DVD or streaming : August 3, 2021
  • Director : Eva Muller
  • Studio : Netflix
  • Genre : Documentary
  • Run time : 96 minutes
  • MPAA rating : NR
  • Last updated : August 25, 2022

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