Netflix called the charge of promoting lewd visual material depicting children 'without merit.'
A grand jury in Texas has indicted Netflix over its controversial film, Cuties. The streaming service is being charged with promotion of lewd visual material depicting children, ET confirms.
The indictment, out of Tyler County, Texas, claims Netflix is is knowingly promoting "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."
However, Netflix is standing by the film, which they picked up from Sundance earlier this year. "Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children. This charge is without merit and we stand by the film," the streamer said in a statement to Deadline.
Cuties, a French-language film about an 11-year-old girl named Amy who joins a group of dancers at her school called "the cuties," released on Netflix on Sept. 9. The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance this year, but its promotion has been embroiled in controversy.
In August, Netflix responded to backlash that the movie's marketing sexualized the young actresses. "We're sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for this film," they said in a statement to ET at the time. "This was not an accurate representation of the film so the image and description has been updated."
See more on Netflix in the video below.
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