Netflix has been indicted by a Texas grand jury for allegedly promoting "lewd visual material depicting a child" in the controversial French movie Cuties. Netflix has said people should watch the coming-of-age drama before they attack, but Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin says that after watching it, he "knew there was probable cause to believe it was criminal," Fox News reports. "The legislators of this state believe promoting certain lewd material of children has destructive consequences,” he said Tuesday. "If such material is distributed on a grand scale, isn’t the need to prosecute more, not less?"
The indictment on the felony charge alleges that Cuties appeals to a "prurient interest in sex" and holds "no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value," the Guardian reports. The film tells the story of an 11-year-old Senegalese immigrant in Paris who joins a group of young dancers—and Netflix is standing by it. Cuties is "a social commentary against the sexualization of young children," a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline. "This charge is without merit and we stand by the film." After the film's release in September caused a backlash and calls for a boycott, Netflix acknowledged that it had used "inappropriate artwork" in its original film poster. (More Netflix stories.)
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