Petition urges Netflix to pull series featuring a satanic ritual
More than 58,000 people have signed a petition asking Netflix to pull The Body, an eight-episode series due out November 11 that the company lists as teen content despite its TV-MA adult rating
A petition drive is calling on Netflix to pull The Body before its November 11 release, questioning why the platform classifies as "teen content" a series the company itself describes as a "psychodrama" built around a "satanic ritual."
The Body is an eight-episode series that Netflix plans to release on November 11. It has prompted an international protest campaign. The platform describes it as "a spicy teen psychodrama with a dash of Catholic horror." It follows Catholic schoolgirls who, under the influence of drugs, carry out a ritual offering a "most holy virginal sacrifice" to the "Prince of Darkness." The series carries a TV-MA rating, which is for adults, but Netflix has placed it in its teen content category. Organizers of the petition say that allows minors to reach it on family devices without effective parental supervision.
The petition is addressed to Peter Rice, Netflix's head of content, with copies to co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. At the time of writing, 58,338 people had signed, with a target of 100,000 signatures. The accompanying letter says Rice has the authority to remove the "teen content" before it airs, and asks him to use it.
Those behind the campaign say the classification decision amounts to a gap in the platform's parental controls. Their argument is that a "satanic ritual" rated for adults, listed among teen offerings, puts the "psychodrama" within reach of minors while parents cannot effectively monitor every time it is played.
Comparisons with earlier disputes
The campaign text draws a direct line between The Body and two earlier Netflix controversies. The first is The First Temptation of Christ, which the campaign says mocked Jesus Christ. The second is Cuties, which the organizers say sexualized 11-year-old girls and led Netflix to apologize publicly after pressure from families. For the petition's organizers, each case is another step in the same direction.
The campaign also raises what it calls a central question: whether Netflix would treat Islamic prayer, Hindu worship or any Wiccan practice the same way, making them the center of a sexual horror story aimed at young people. The protesters' implicit answer is no, and they accuse the platform of treating Christians this way because it calculates there will be no financial consequences.
The financial argument: who pays for Netflix
The petition recalls that in 2018 a senior Netflix executive called the faith and family audience "a very important audience" for the platform. It also cites a 2014 Pew Research survey finding that the overwhelming majority of people in Spanish-speaking Latin America identify as Christian, either Catholic or Protestant. The signers' argument is that those same Christian families pay, through their monthly subscriptions, for content they say disparages them.
The letter to Rice ends with a specific demand: that The Body be pulled before its worldwide release on November 11, and before, as the text puts it, it "reaches our living rooms."
Based on reporting by José García for Iglesia Noticias. This article was translated and adapted from Spanish with the help of artificial intelligence.
