Alex C. just did a great video on Turkey’s decision to block a highly inappropriate movie from being shown on Netflix in that country. The movie was “Cuties.” Incidentally, I’ve had several experiences with sexualization of children, as well as encountering other (particularly Satanic, which I might write about in a future post) content on Netflix for Kids. You see, I am a mom of two sons under the age of 8. Like it or not, they watch way more TV than I’d like. The story behind this video is this:
One day I was home with my oldest son (probably my younger boy was still in preschool, as those had not yet closed). I let him sit next to me on my bed all day long and watch TV while I worked. He had his dad’s laptop, and I had my own laptop. That way I could at least sort-of pay attention to what he was watching on TV. Low and behold, THIS promotional video came up on his Netflix feed. You’ll notice that we were in Netflix for Kids. I had the content limit set for “7 and up.” When I heard the sexual noises coming from the computer next to me, I glanced to my right and could not believe my eyes. I played it again. Then I played it again and filmed it. No one would have ever believed this if I had not documented the proof! A TV show made in Japan in the early 2000’s (probably for a much older teen crowd) shows a gaggle of naked women cooing and hanging all over a martial arts fighter, just before he is defeated with a stream of blood flying from his nose, and passing out unconscious on the ground (the blood-streaming orgasm moment is a hallmark of pornographic Japanese cartoon imagery). This move is called the “Harem Juitsu.” After filming this, I immediately cancelled Netflix.
Do NOT PAY these people any money! Just don’t do it. They clearly are sexualizing children! This isn’t the only example of Netflix violating my own moral code for childhood television shows… but it is probably the most egregious and outright obvious one! There was literally nothing I could do to anticipate this, block this, or unsee it once it was seen.
Have you ever seen any inappropriate kids’ TV show up on Netflix? How about other platforms? Please boycott Netflix and ANYONE WHO SEXUALIZES KIDS through inappropriate movies, games, or art. “Cuties” is the worst…but at least it was rated for adults… not that it makes it okay. Instead, it seems to push the super sexualized imagery of young children onto adult brains… to do what with exactly? However, an adult brain at least has the faculties to make choices about such content. A child’s brain does not. This was only an advertisement! Yet it sets the hook. Stuff like this introduces soft core pornography to my very young boys. SEVEN. My oldest son is SEVEN. Sex is not a mystery to him any more. But rather than learn about it in the context of a healthy, loving, procreative marriage, he now can connect the term “Harem” with an orgy scene that will never disappear from his conscious memory. I didn’t even get the chance to let him discover where babies actually come from. But a Harem full of naked blondes got in there first. And he is SEVEN. I could honestly slap the person who thought for one second that this video was okay for the KIDS section of Netflix! God forbid I ever meet that person!
You may criticize me for letting my boy remain in the room while I played it again. Twice. But notice that I made a very, very specific point in his witness: I said, “Appropriate for seven year olds? Don’t think so!” See how I followed it up with a major rebuttal? I even let him watch me cancel the account, and took a moment to explain to him how our money will no longer be paying a company for content like this. He knows exactly why he’s not allowed to watch Netflix any more. Hopefully, he will never forget the way I responded when I encountered that scene. My hope is that he will have the tools, because he’s seen me model this response, to shut it off, rebut, and turns way from influences like these in the future. God knows there will certainly be many, many more.
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