This image released by Netflix shows the cast of the coming-of-age film “Cuties.” The backlash to the French independent film “Mignonnes,” or “Cuties,” started before it had even been released because of a poster that went viral for its provocative depiction of its young female actors.
This image released by Netflix shows the cast of the coming-of-age film “Cuties.” The backlash to the French independent film “Mignonnes,” or “Cuties,” started before it had even been released because of a poster that went viral for its provocative depiction of its young female actors. Netflix via Associated Press
Herb Scribner
By Herb Scribner

Netflix will now face criminal charges due to the backlash over “Cuties,” a French film that tells the story of a young girl who joins a dance crew.

What’s going on?

  • A grand jury filed an indictment against Netflix for lewd visual material depicting a child on Sept. 23 in Tyler County, Texas, according to NBC News.
  • The indictment said Netflix has promoted, distributed and exhibited material that “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” for the “prurient interest in sex.”
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  • The indictment said the film has no “literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
  • “‘Cuties’ is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” Netflix said in a statement to NBC News on Tuesday. “This charge is without merit and we stand by the film.”

A reminder

Earlier this week, Utah Sen. Mike Lee called for Netflix to cease distribution of the controversial film “Cuties.”

Lee said in a statement that he was unhappy with how Netflix responded to a letter sent to the company as well as a phone conversation Lee had with the streaming service, according to Deseret.com.

  • “Asked whether the sexualization of young girls depicted in ‘Cuties’ constituted criminal conduct, Netflix offered only conclusory statements in denial. I am not convinced,” said Lee, who believes the Department of Justice should investigate the company.
  • “But setting aside the legal question, there is a more pressing moral question. Netflix itself acknowledges that the conduct of the young girls in ‘Cuties’ is ‘inappropriate, shameful and a hallmark of a cultural failing.’ I couldn’t agree more,” he said.
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These states led the country in canceling Netflix over ‘Cuties.’ Utah is one of them.
  • “What I cannot understand, however, is how Netflix can condemn the conduct depicted in ‘Cuties,’ while celebrating the film and filmmakers who asked several underage girls to stand in front of a camera and engage in that same ‘inappropriate, shameful’ conduct for all the world to see.”

Lee said Netflix needs to take the film off of its platform.

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“Until it does so, Netflix lacks the moral standing to speak to any cultural issue,” he said.

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