Released in 2017, Netflix original series Big Mouth centers on middle school children entering puberty. The show is filled with harmful sexual content involving children and is flooded with inappropriate scenes showing children’s genitalia. Throughout the series, there’s continual reference to genitalia and sex in explicit manners, adult figures inciting sexual activity among children, steady use of vulgar language, and the like. Recent evidence shows that Netflix is fully vested in sexually exploiting children for ‘adult’ entertainment. And, to date, more than 40 legislators representing millions of constituents from 15 states, and 16 child-advocacy organizations have signed a petition urging Netflix to drop this show.
In the first five minutes of the season’s first episode, viewers get an up-close picture of a thirteen-year-old boy’s genitalia, and later in the series, viewers get visited by a young girl having a conversation with her vagina, a clip of an adult male’s penis, and an adult monster who shouts, “hold him [the boy] down and jam it [penis] in his mouth!”
Others scenes include a boy ejaculating while dancing with a young girl at a school dance, a boy masturbating under his bed sheets, and a father advising his son to kiss a penis. This show is demoralizing, sexually explicit, and maltreatment of children entering the pubescent stage of life.
Natural Attraction to Young Viewers and Easily Accessible
Netflix original series Big Mouth has all the components to attract young viewers with similar cartoon animation styles popular shows among youth such as Family Guy, American Dad!, and Bob’s Burgers, which attracts millions of viewers each year. The show itself centers around the life of middle school students, their entrance into puberty, and sexuality- all of which can spark curiosity among young viewers, and attract them to the show. According to the University of Washington Harborview Medical Center, “It is not unusual for grade school children to become increasingly curious about adult sexual behavior. By age 10, many children are showing the first signs of puberty, and their interest in what this means increases… [by middle school] children become increasingly aware of their own sexual feelings that naturally go along with puberty.”
At the end of 2016, Netflix rolled out with its screensaver feature that displays a rotating selection of Netflix original series shows. When Netflix is left idle on a smart television, Big Mouth, as well as other original series, are advertised on the television in the home and inadvertently to young viewers. The show was also found premiered among children cartoons and movies such as, “The Grinch”, “Green Eggs & Ham”, and “Incredibles 2”.
Shows on Netflix, no matter the content, can be easily accessible to children. Parents can enable parental controls, but only to the extent of barring access by a four-digit passcode. When someone attempts to watch a show that falls under a content category restriction, a four-digit bar appears prompting the passcode. All it takes is discovering or being handed the passcode one time, and children have access to any content offered by Netflix. Netflix counted more than 100 million subscribers who stream one billion hours of content a week.
Harmful to Children
“Exposing children and teenagers to sexual content that appears in this show is reckless and can lead to some very devastating actions that young people will later regret,” says Eddie Capparucci, who is a Clinical Expert/Contributor for the National Decency Coalition. “This program is giving kids sexual messages that are inappropriate and, in some cases, if acted upon, would be considered illegal.”
“As adults we should be protecting our children from exposure to outside sources that provide them with sexual stimuli. We should be the primary source providing healthy information about sex,” says Capparucci, who has a private practice in Marietta, GA and is certified in the treatment of sexual and pornography addiction. “We need to remember the brain is not fully developed until we reach our mid-20s, therefore, kids are more likely to act based on their emotions instead of rational decision making. What worries me most about a program like Big Mouth is kids mimicking what they see and acting out against other innocent children.”
“I am sure the creators of the show would say its content is geared to adults,” Capparucci continued. “However, the fact that it is animated and centers around the lives of young teenagers make it a television program kids would want to investigate.”
“I have seen first hand the devastating impact pornography has had on individuals and relationships,” said Capparucci whose clients have included NFL and MLB players. “And in nearly every case an individual who became addicted to pornography stumbled across it at an early age. What it does is create a distorted view of sex and teaches viewers to objectify others for their own sexual gratification.”
Public Reaction
Movieguide recently wrote an article on the show warning parents and television viewers of the extremely harmful content that Big Mouth poses to children. It finds contradictions comparing the content of the show to Netflix’s statement of “core values”. CitizenGo launched a petition urging Netflix to pull the show from their catalog. The petition received over 100,000 signatures, and noted harmful content coming from this show, such as “nocturnal ejaculation, [and] crude depictions of menstruation….”
Tiffany Leeper, Founder of Girls Against Porn & Human Trafficking, in regards to Big Mouth, stated, “For an adult to even watch the explicit content on this show is difficult – it cannot be disputed that content on the episodes is often really soft-core porn, or pornographic content and can’t even explicitly be repeated to a general audience. Female and male private parts are shown in cartoon format, the advocating of oral sex of minors, and encouraging adolescents who already have a difficult time in understanding how their body might be changing during development, and sends the message that you can be sexually exploited, sexually addicted, sexually violated, and the viewing/touching of your private body parts by anyone else is okay. Every parent should be outraged that this show is even being allowed on the air and should immediately file a complaint with the FCC, and Department of Justice in violation of federal ‘harmful to minors’ and ‘obscenity’ laws.”
Take action now to urge Netflix to stop sexually exploiting children for adult entertainment.