Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos Grilled On Why The Company Pushes So Much Transgender Content Aimed At Children

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was grilled on why there is so much children’s programming on his service that pushes gender ideology and specifically transgenderism.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley questioned Sarandos during a Senator hearing on the proposed purchase of Warner Bros. by Netflix. He asked, “Why is it that so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology? … Is this an advocacy position for Netflix? Is this an ideological commitment? Why is this?

Sarandos punted on the question, “Senator Hawley, Netflix has no political agenda of any kind.”

Senator Hawley interjected, “Well, then why is your children’s programming so full of this highly sexualized, highly controversial, highly controversial agenda. I don’t understand it. It seems strange to me.”

Sarandos replied, “Respectfully, sir, it’s because it’s inaccurate. We have millions of hours of children’s programming.”

Hawley again questioned, “You don’t have trans, feature trans characters, trans storylines, trans themes, it’s not in your programming?”

Sarandos responded, “I’m saying we feature a wide variety of stories and programs to meet a wide variety of people’s tastes, sensibilities-”

Hawley again questioned, “Why is almost half of it? Why is almost half of your children’s programming feature this highly controversial, highly sexualized material? That just seems strange to me. It can’t possibly be a reflection of the population.”

Sarandos countered, “Senator, I don’t have any idea where that number would come from or what that would be. I don’t believe that’s been your personal experience, but I can’t speak to that.”

Hawley then questioned, “What do you mean you don’t think it’s been my personal experience? You don’t think that I monitor what my children watch? Here’s what my personal experience is since you bring it up. My personal experience is that my children, I can’t let them watch anything they want on Netflix. I can’t let them watch anything on Netflix unless I preview it because I don’t have confidence in what’s on your platform. I don’t know what they’re going to encounter.”

“And I tell you what, I don’t want my kids being pushed an agenda about their sexuality or their gender identity when I have not had the opportunity first to discuss it with them and to form them in that,” he continued. “And, frankly, on behalf of parents around the country, it offends me that Netflix is pushing this content at parents in what seems to be a very coordinated, thought through, planned out agenda in a way that, frankly, undermines parents. Certainly, undermines me and my wife. We have to watch every show beforehand before we can let our kids watch it. That seems pretty concerning to me.”

“I know you make a gob of money on it and maybe that’s the answer,” Hawley speculated. “But It just seems to me it’s a disservice to the parents of this country. Particularly given what’s happening with our youth on this subject.”

Sarandos responded, “We have millions of hours on Netflix at any given time. We have state of the art tools for you to manage those choices for your children and to block any title you might be offended by for any reason.”

“We are parents at Netflix as well,” he continued. “We share all your concerns about raising kids and also the ability to raise them as you see fit in your household and anyone’s household as well.”

Hawley rebutted, “My concern is that you don’t share my values or those of many other American parents and you want the United States government to become one of the largest if not the largest streaming monopolist in the world. I think we ought to be concerned about what content you are promoting.”

Senator Hawley is indeed correct we should be concerned about the content that Netflix is promoting and regardless or not if there are any kind of parental controls, the content in question has no right to exist given the intent is clearly to erode the public morals and welfare of society.

Given this, as Pope Paul VI advised in Inter Mirifica, “The same public authority, which legitimately concerns itself with the health of the citizenry, is obliged, through the promulgation and careful enforcement of laws, to exercise a fitting and careful watch lest grave damage befall public morals and the welfare of society through the base use of these media. Such vigilance in no wise restricts the freedom of individuals or groups, especially where there is a lack of adequate precaution on the part of those who are professionally engaged in using these media.”

He added, “Special care should be taken to safeguard young people from printed matter and performances which may be harmful at their age.”

Hawley and others in the U.S. government thus have a duty to ensure this type of content does not exist and should take the necessary measures such as obscenity laws to protect our society from this evil.

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