Netflix has been indicted on a criminal charge over “Cuties” amid claims the movie promotes “lewd visual material” of a child. The lawsuit centers on Netflix’s release of the controversial French film “Cuties,” originally titled “Mignonnes,” last month to strong national reaction.
A Tyler County, Texas grand jury moved to return an indictment against Netflix on Sept. 23. Texas Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) tweeted a photo of the indictment.
“Netflix, Inc… knowingly promote[d] 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 indictment reads.
Netflix has previously defended the film in statements to a number of news outlets calling the project “a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up.”
“Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” a spokesperson for Netflix told Fox News. “This charge is without merit and we stand by the film.”
Amid the controversy in August, “Cuties” writer and director, French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post. In it, she wrote, “We, as adults, have not given children the tools to grow up healthy in our society.”
Netflix describes the movie as being a coming-of-age story of an 11-year-old Senegalese immigrant named Amy, who lives with her strict Muslim family in a poor neighborhood of Paris.
In a statement on Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin office’s Facebook page on Tuesday, Babin said that after watching the movie, he “knew there was probable cause to believe it was criminal,” according to Fox News.
“The legislators of this state believe promoting certain lewd material of children has destructive consequences,” Babin continued. “If such material is distributed on a grand scale, isn’t the need to prosecute more, not less?”
He added: “A grand jury found probable cause for this felony, and my job is to uphold the laws of this State and see that justice is done.”