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Mr. Hastings,

I vehemently oppose the continued streaming of the movie “Cuties” on Netflix, and request that you voluntarily remove it from your service due to the great harm it causes to our children.

While the filmmaker’s asserted desire to fight the hyper-sexualization of young girls is admirable, the manner in which the film attempts to do so is misguided and does more harm than good.

This film contains the gratuitous exposure of a young girl’s breast; it repeatedly shows children using their bodies in a sexual manner to get themselves out of trouble; it graphically focuses on the clothed genitalia of children; and it shows the creation and publication of child pornography. Repeated images of 11-year old children gyrating, “twerking,” and simulating sex in tight, skimpy clothes simply serves as fodder for those with criminal imaginations, serving to normalize the view that children are sexual beings.  It whets the appetites of those who wish to harm our children in the most unimaginable ways—ways I have had to prosecute.

In this era where we are fighting a seemingly never-ending battle against human trafficking, this film is counterproductive. The sexualization of our children leads traffickers to view them as commodities that can be sold, over and over again. Traffickers often step in when children face vulnerabilities similar to those of the protagonist in “Cuties.” We should be teaching our children about healthy conversations and safe spaces to deal with their vulnerabilities, not normalizing hyper-sexualization as a way to become “popular” and a means to work through the issues they might face in their everyday lives.

In short, this film does immeasurable damage to all of us fighting to keep our children safe.

Sincerely,

Jeff Landry, Louisiana Attorney General

Dave Yost, Ohio Attorney General

Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General

Ashley Moody, Florida Attorney General