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Netflix’s Legal Crusade in Child Erotica Law

netflix
Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Getty
Eriq Gardner
March 3, 2022

“Spider” has gone too far, says Netflix. On Thursday, the streamer asked a federal court to intervene in a criminal case and stop Tyler County, Texas District Attorney Lucas Babin from continuing a child pornography prosecution.

The situation arises from the 2020 release of Cuties, a coming-of-age tale about a 11-year-old Senegalese girl who joins a dance troupe. The controversial movie about the sexualization of young children hit it big at the Sundance Film Festival, was acquired by Netflix, and then became a hot topic in conservative media. That’s when Babin, who once played “Spider” in School of Rock, made national headlines in Oct. 2020 by indicting Netflix on the charge of distributing “child erotica.”