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Great Falls, Va., October 9, 2020 -- Enough Is Enough® (EIE), a national non-profit organization fighting to make the internet safer for children and families since 1994, applauds the Texas grand jury's decision to hold Netflix criminally liable on child pornography violations and remains optimistic that the Department of Justice will follow suit at the federal level.
Enough Is Enough® launched a national petition September 25, 2020 calling for dual action including the removal of “Cuties” from Netflix and an investigation by DOJ for child pornography violations. To date, the petition has gathered nearly 17,000 signatures.
Netflix continues to denounce assertions made in the indictment, standing by the film and calling it a “social commentary against the sexualization of young children.”
“It is abundantly clear by Netflix’s response to the ‘Cuties’ indictment that they are clueless regarding federal child pornography laws,” said Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough®. “Producing a so-called ‘social commentary’ does not, in the eyes of the law, grant permission to anyone, for any purpose, to depict sexually-explicit scenes of young children, whether clothed or unclothed. It is outrageous that Netflix continues to defend their “Cuties” film that exploits the very children they purportedly care about. The young, pre-adolescent-actresses are shown performing stripper-esque scenes that include crotch shots, twerking, humping and gyrating, while cameras slowly pan up and down their young bodies. Even more disturbing is the scene in which a preteen character named Amy, pulls down her underwear and photographs her genitals, which she then posts online.There is a ‘zero-tolerance” policy of child pornography in America. As such, Netflix and other streaming sites, must get on board with this reality or face criminal charges.”
On Wednesday, Texas Rep. Matt Schaefer posted a tweet containing a photo of a Tyler County, Texas grand jury indictment of Netflix, Inc., which was filed on September 23,, 2020. The text of the indictment states that Netflix knowingly promotes "visual material which depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was created, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value … "
The film, directed by Maïmouna Doucouré which centers around 11-year old girls and their free-spirited dance crew, has received nation-wide backlash for exploiting pre-adolescent actresses in skimpy attire with hypersexualized dance moves and simulated sexual acts. The film has appropriately the garnered the new hashtag #CancelNetflix.
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