The Thinning: New World Order

Parents need to know that The Thinning: New World Order is a YouTube 2018 dystopian science fiction movie that's a sequel to the 2016 YouTube movie The Thinning. There are some moments of graphic violence, including a bloody death by a box cutter and extended MMA-style fight scenes leaving characters bloody and with broken limbs and bruises. In a prison-like underground labor camp, bullies encourage a boy standing on a ledge to fall to his death. A security force, clad in black with black hockey masks, enforces order by clubbing teens, resulting in a broken leg for the lead character. Teen bullies in the underground labor camp pick fights and belittle those around them. "F--k" is used once. A minor character is distinguished by his overuse of the word "bitch." While the movie, like the original, is a low-budget science fiction movie that uses the future to mirror and illustrate points about current political and technological realities, much of this is overshadowed by controversies surrounding the movie's lead character, internet celebrity Logan Paul. The movie's release was delayed in the aftermath of a vlog Paul posted in January 2018 in which he went into a forest in Japan known for being a place where people commit suicide; upon finding someone who had recently committed suicide by hanging from a tree, Paul was shown behaving inappropriately and was roundly condemned for treating someone's suicide as "clickbait" for his vlog. Considering the millions of young fans Paul has, rather than discussing the movie, it might be more worthwhile to discuss suicide prevention, how the controversial video had received hundreds of thousands of likes before it was taken down due to massive public outcry, and whether or not someone like Logan Paul should even be given a second chance in light of his actions.