Netflix Faces Backlash for Controversial Children’s Scenes in ‘Desire’

Netflix is facing backlash and being petitioned to remove the 2017 Argentinian film Desire for its inclusion of a controversial scene involving children.

The Parents Television Counsel is calling on Netflix to remove the controversial film Desire from the streaming service’s library due to a scene that some are equating to child pornography, Deadline reports.

“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,” PTC president Timothy Winter wrote to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. “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?”

The scene in question, which serves as one of the film’s opening scenes, involves a 9-year-old girl unknowingly masturbating for the first time and experiencing an orgasm while imitating a cowboy riding a horse in a John Ford film.

Director Diego Kaplan disputed the child pornography categorization, telling Indiewire that the filming of the scene was done under the supervision of the girls’ parents and that neither of the two young girls involved in the scene were aware of what was being depicted.

“Of course this 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,” Kaplan said in a statement. “No adult interacted with the girls, other than the child acting coach. Everything was done under the careful surveillance of the girls’ mothers.”

Kaplan added that in an effort to diffuse any controversy surrounding the scene, which he suspected would occur, a “Making Of” footage of the scene in its entirety has been included. He also stated that “everything works inside the spectators’ heads,” and how someone thinks the scene was filmed “will depend on your level of depravity.”

This is far from the first Netflix film or TV series that the has come under criticism. The Parents Television Counsel has continuously called on Netflix to pull popular series 13 Reasons Why for its controversial and harmful depictions of suicide, sexual assault, and other controversial elements of the series.

Most recently, Netflix original series Insatiable has drawn criticism from critics and social media users and sparked a petition for its removal due to its body-shaming.