#shame W9: What is this mini-series about cyberbullying?

Two high school teachers in central Australia discover that students are sharing sexual images of their underage friends. This revelation has consequences for the four teenagers, their teachers and their families.

#Shame season 1 episode 4 airs this Tuesday 26th July at 9.05pm on W9.

When Amandeep, a smart student, sends an intimate photo of her to Naseem, her boyfriend, she has no idea that it could end up in the wrong hands. Although he has no bad intentions, the young man does share the photo with another student, Andy, unaware that he is about to set off a chain of events that will lead to the photo being uploaded to a porn site without Amandeep’s consent.

At a nearby high school, another student, Zoe, finds herself in a similar situation. A screenshot of his private act is made public without his consent. Like Amandeep, Zoe’s photo ends up on a porn site, with immediate consequences for the two young girls and their families. The plight of these four teenagers and the complex chain of events that follows is central to the story of #Shame.

Created by Sophie Hyde and Matthew Cormack, this mini-series, inspired by the news that shook Australia in 2016, tackles themes of misogyny, cyberbullying, sexualisation and youth sexuality.

Thus, fiction becomes a mirror of our times in painting a portrait of a modern and multicultural Australia. And with over 4 million viewers, #Shame has quickly established itself as one of Australia’s biggest hits on SBS.

Asher Cady (Stateless, The Cry) and Richard Roxburgh (Catherine the Great, Elvis) direct this 4-episode fiction with Sam Reid (The Riot Club), Jessica de Gouw (Arrow), Luca Sardelis (Nowhere Boys), Yazed Daher (Timor Sea Rescue), as well as two young actors Kavita Anandasivam and Alex Cusack.