Streaming giant, Netflix, has been accused by the Parent Television Council for depicting pornography in the film ‘Desire’ in a scene where a nine-year old girl was masturbating to the point of orgasm.
In an open letter by Timothy F. Winter, president of the Parent Television Council, to Netflix asked the question of whether or not Netflix now stream nine-year old girls masturbating. The open letter reads, “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.”
Winter also calls out other Netflix programs such as 13 Reasons why and the animated show Big Mouth for their depictions of suicide and serialization of children, respectfully.
“At such a momentous time in Hollywood as this, where #MeToo is exposing grotesque behavior and holding those accountable for engaging in it, how can Netflix affirmatively engage in the distribution of such disreputable content?” Winter asks, before addressing Hastings by name to remove the child-porn content and adopt guidelines that reflect the needs of concerned families.
In defense of the film, the director of the Argentinian film, Diego Kaplan defended the scene in a statement to IndieWire, saying, “We work in a world of fiction and for me, before being a director comes being a father.” According to Kaplan the scene was filmed using a trick, which was that the girls were copying a cowboy scene from a film by John Ford. The girls never understood what they were doing, they were just copying what they were seeing on the screen.
“No adult interacted with the girls, other than the child acting coach. Everything was done under the careful surveillance of the girl’s mothers. Because I knew this scene might cause some controversy at some point, there is making of footage of the filming of the entire scene. Everything works inside the spectators’ head, and how you think this scene was filmed will depend on your level of depravity,” said Kaplan.
The scene in question depicts two young girls” Watching a Western on television and are pretending their pillows are horses,” Winter writes. “The older girl begins to obviously masturbate as the younger child watches. The camera even takes this scene into a closeup of the child’s face in slow motion, moving up and down and panting like a Porn Star.”
The American media service provider, Netflix, is credited for producing award-winning TV shows such as, Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, The Crown, Lost in Space and more.
