'Does Netflix Stand for Distribution of 9 Year Old Girls Masturbating?': Parent Group Slams Streaming Giant
The group, Parents Television Council, has penned a letter to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, saying that the Argentinean film shows nine-year-old girls indulging in sexual activity.
Los Angeles: A group of parents have alleged that Netflix's new feature Desire depicts child pornography and petitioned the streaming giant to remove the film from its platform.
The group, Parents Television Council, has penned a letter to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, saying that the Argentinean film shows nine-year-old girls indulging in sexual activity.
"I respectfully, but pointedly, ask you: Does the Netflix brand stand for the distribution of nine year old girls masturbating? The answer is yes or no; there is no other choice here," Timothy F. Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, wrote in the letter to Hastings.
The group accused Netflix of "showing a reckless disregard for the millions of families that keep your streaming platform alive and viable, and callously placing profits ahead of any sense of corporate responsibility, to potentially engaging in criminal activity."
"At such a momentous time in Hollywood as this, where #MeToo is exposing grotesque behaviour and holding those accountable for engaging in it, how can Netflix affirmatively engage in the distribution of such disreputable content?" the letter stated.
In a statement to IndieWire, the director of the film, Diego Kaplan, defended the scene.
"When we see a shark eating a woman on film, no one thinks the woman really died or that the shark was real. We work in a world of fiction; and, for me, before being a director comes being a father," he said.