By David Kleeman

Generations Z and Alpha are growing up organically global, as a result of their substantially borderless digital, social and mobile media world. So it’s not surprising that Ampere Analysis has just projected that more than half of Netflix’s content spend in the coming year will be channeled into non-US projects.

Of course, there are economic factors at play, such as lower costs and tax benefits of producing in other countries. But anyone tracking the habits and preferences of kids, teens and young adults today can see that they’re fully open to content from outside their own cultures and eager for something new. Here are a few key insights:

Common wisdom once held that youth in the US wouldn’t watch TV shows and movies produced in a foreign language, or featuring characters with accents. There are any number of examples that totally disprove this assumption: Bluey and Peppa Pig both have American parent characters who complain about their kids speaking with Australian or British accents, asking for “brekky” and calling their mothers “Mummy“. This is especially ironic since parents in other countries have complained for decades that their children are growing up with American accents and slang as a result of the amount of US-made television and films they watch.

Series from around the world have become favorites among younger audiences. South Korea’s incredibly violent Squid Games series remarkably popped up in tween/teen viewing surveys. There were also reports of children “playing” the show on the playground; and in the month after its Netflix debut, more than 100,000 Squid Games titles were launched on Roblox.

Scam from Norway went viral not through the international marketplace, but because fans subtitled pirated versions and posted them on YouTube and other open platforms.

Anime has become a hot genre worldwide. During the pandemic, when young people were consuming content voraciously and looking for something new and unpredictable, Japanese animation experienced a huge rise in popularity on streaming platforms. Per Statista, subscriptions to the anime VOD service Crunchyroll quadrupled between July 2020 (three million) and January 2024 (13 million), and last October the company launched a FAST channel.

Since Gen Z, in particular, watches almost everything with subtitles on, foreign-language shows are on a par with content in their primary language.

Cross-cultural engagement isn’t limited to video viewing, either. Roblox recently introduced real-time translation for in-game chat in 16 languages.

There are differences across countries, to be certain. A conference organized by the UK’s Children’s Media Foundation in February 2024 debated how to increase the amount of “culturally relevant” public service programming in order to ensure that children have access to voices, places and stories representing the diversity of Britain.

Dubit research in Turkey has found that parents want their children to consume substantially Turkish media in order to sustain their cultural connections. That said, kids have long demonstrated that parents only have a certain degree of control over their entertainment choices, beyond the age of six. To the extent that this audience is connecting with others around the world on gaming, social and video platforms, they’ll be introduced to new content and will find a way to watch it, whether on a formal platform or via “hacks.”

Broadcasters, streamers and even UGC video creators and game developers would do well to pay attention to Netflix’s growing cultural range. Not only is Gen Alpha the largest generation, it’s also the most culturally diverse, the most connected, and the most accepting that its world is interdependent.

Image courtesy of DCL “650” via Unsplash