Sexualizing Children Is 'Corporate Practice' for Netflix, Advocacy Group Says
Sexualizing children in films like the newly released “Cuties” is “corporate practice” for Netflix, the Parents Television Council wrote in a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Parents Television Council is calling for lawmakers to “convene hearings on the entertainment media’s troubling trend of sexualizing children in its programming,” according to a letter sent to Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley released Thursday.
“We urge you to understand the depth and breadth of this truly vexing subject,” PTC president Timothy Winter wrote to Hawley.
Hawley last week wrote a letter to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings demanding the removal of “Cuties.”
Winter cited what he said are examples of Netflix “graphically and grotesquely sexualizing children through its entertainment programming,” listing the comedy series “Big Mouth” and “Sex Education” and the movies “Desire” and “Baby.”
“Sex Education” includes “high school-aged characters engaged in graphic sex scenes with dialog that one would expect only to find in XXX films,” Winter wrote, adding that “Baby” glamorizes teen prostitution.
“Senator Hawley, one instance of a Netflix program that sexualizes children could be an anomaly; two instances could be a coincidence; three instances could be a random connection; but four instances, and actually it’s more than four, suggest a corporate practice for such programming,” Winter wrote to the senator.
The letter is also directed to lawmakers who have condemned “Cuties,” including Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah and Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
Netflix declined to comment on the PTC letter.
“Cuties” sparked intense debate over its sexualized depictions of young girls.
The movie not only includes many close-up shots of girls’ crotches and buttocks, but also shows children viewing pornography and discussing sexual acts. It shows one girl photographing her genitalia, among other suggestive scenes.
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