Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual behaviour which some readers may find upsetting.
Netflix is facing criticism from its users after Diego Kaplan's Argentinian film, Desire, is being accused of featuring disturbing scenes of child pornography.
Kaplan has now defended his film, claiming that the young actor wasn't exploited while filming the scene and that everything was done "under the surveillance" of her mother who was always on set.
The scene in question features a young girl who accidentally has her first orgasm while using a pillow to imitate a cowboy riding a horse. Kaplan opted to use close-ups of her face, slow motion and the sound of heavy breathing.
The journalist Megan Fox (not the actress of the same name) then criticised Netflix and the film in an article for the US conservative website PJ Media, and even went so far as to report the scene to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, claiming that it "exceeds the minimum requirement of merely being suggestive."
It has since been reported that the NCMEC has opened an investigate into the film, but there haven't been any new developments on any actions taken against Netflix.
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Kaplan then defended his film in a statement to IndieWire.
"Despair is a film. When we see a shark eating a woman on film, no one thinks the woman really died or that the shark was real," said the director.
"We work in a world of fiction; and, for me, before being a director comes being a father."
He continued: "Of course this scene was filmed using a trick, which was that the girls were copying a cowboy scene from a film by John Ford. The girls never understood what they were doing, they were just copying what they were seeing on the screen."
"No adult interacted with the girls, other than the child acting coach. Everything was done under the careful surveillance of the girls' mothers. Because I knew this scene might cause some controversy at some point, there is 'Making Of' footage of the filming of the entire scene."
"Everything works inside the spectators' heads, and how you think this scene was filmed will depend on your level of depravity," he finished.
Desire, which is currently unavailable in the UK, was first released in December 2017. It's Argentinian title is Desearas: Al Hombre De Tu Hermana.
Digital Spy has contacted Netflix for a comment.
Readers who are affected by the issues raised in this story are encouraged to contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 (www.nspcc.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline on (1-800-422-4453) or the American SPCC (www.americanspcc.org).
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