A new French film coming soon to Netflix about 11-year-old girls in a twerking dance group has prompted a wave of outrage and accusations of sexualising children.
Netflix has already apologised for the "inappropriate" artwork and description the company used to advertise Cuties, which it has since updated. The original poster used on the US version of Netflix shows four young girls sporting hot pants, crop tops and knee pads as they pose in a variety of provocative positions.
The streaming giant tweeted that they were "deeply sorry" and had since changed the film's artwork and blurb - but many users want to see it gone from the service entirely, with some threatening to cancel their subscriptions.
The description, which Netflix has since claimed was "not representative" of the Sundance award-winning film, described the lead character Amy, an 11-year-old Senegalese Muslim girl's "fascination with a twerking dance crew" and how she starts to "explore her femininity" by joining them.
At the time of writing, the blurb on Netflix's YouTube clip of the trailer had been updated to call the dance group "a free-spirited dance clique", referring to the girls "building their self-confidence through dance".
The trailer for the film, which remains unchanged on the streaming service, at one point shows the girls delighted at the likes they receive on social media for videos of them twerking in revealing outfits.
Social media users were "disgusted" by Netflix's approach to promoting the film, with one pointing out the difference between the US poster and the much more demure French poster, which showed the girls walking down the street after a shopping trip.
"The French version has more 'kids having fun!' vibes, while the American version is just f**king... gross," one Twitter user captioned a side-by-side image of the two posters.
"I feel like the #Netflix marketing team has a lot to answer for."
"This is a faux pas that as a teacher, as a parent, as an artist I can't fathom," another replied to Netflix on Twitter. "Disgusted on so many levels with what you did here."
Others pointed out that the film is rated for mature audiences despite being a story about young children dancing. "A movie about 11-year-olds twerking, rated for mature," one comment on the trailer read. "Let that sink in."
"As disgusting as this is, what's more disgusting is that the director ordered under-aged children to twerk for a camera," another said.
A Change.org petition to have Cuties removed from Netflix has garnered more than 84,000 signatures.
