Hell, the UK had a pretty big “wake the fuck up” moment with the series “Adolescence”
Never heard of it, and looking it up I don’t see any controversy surrounding it so not sure what you’re referring to here.
Considering this is a thread about a UK policy decision, you should likely familiarize yourself with other cultures approaches to things. I'm "guessing" you're an American. If so, America's not a great poster child to comment on any other nations approach to these sorts of topics, considering your government has basically pushed to dumb down and idiocracy-ify your population through their approach on these subjects. Adolescence was an award winning show, heavily featured on the BBC, and discussed broadly as it highlighted toxic masculinity and issues for young men. Even as a Canadian, who didn't watch the show, I'm aware of it and its general themes/topics due to how much media attention it received. Maybe you're just in a pro-America "Let them figure it out themself! MA FREEDOM TO FAP!!!" bubble.
Your comment about 16 year olds also smacks of American "She wasn't a child, she was past puberty!" type reasoning.