The Parents Television Council (PTC) is demanding Netflix remove an Argentinian film, citing examples from the feature it considers to be child pornography. In a letter from the PTC to Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, the council describes the offensive scene:
No doubt you have learned of this controversial film, and the aforementioned scene has been publicly described thusly: “Two young girls, approximately ages seven and nine, are watching a western on television and are pretending their pillows are horses. 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 scene is graphic and includes an orgasm.
Desire became a focus of online backlash earlier this year after an article written by conservative writer Megan Fox went viral. Fox reported the film to the FBI and the Department of Justice. Those agencies instructed Fox to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who subsequently launched an investigation into the film.
Deadline reports that PTC has been “increasingly vocal in its criticism of Netflix” in recent months, specifically voicing concerns about the teen drama 13 Reasons Why and its depiction of suicide. The PTC, a non-partisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment, launched an online petition to have the series removed from distribution.
The PTC considers Netflix and Hastings ignoring these requests to be “a reckless disregard” that values money over the American family.
But now Netflix has gone from merely 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. And 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?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INlY0q2WrxU
The film tells the story of two sisters, Lucía and Ofelia, who finally meet after seven years apart. It debuted on Netflix in December 2017.
H/T Deadline