After I first posted this article, someone replied to me saying how
much they agreed and said they had cancelled Netflix because they
shrugged off incidents where teens copied a suicide from the
13 Reasons Why
movie. Netflix didn't think it was their responsibility, which was a
similar attitude of no accountability I saw in YouTube content creators I
had noted in the
#METOO article.
The person replying to me also noted how even "kids" content also had
too much graphic and sexual content, which I had noticed and still
notice in other video streaming services and broadcast television.
These
things reminded me of other movies and series offered by Netflix and
other outlets that have encouraged impressionable people to do deadly
stunts, like laying in the middle of a road (from the movie, The Program, and later "planking" craze) or to run about blindfolded, even driving blindfolded (from the movie, Bird Box, which started the viral Bird Box Challenge), and to imitate suicides, crimes, and other violence.
These
popular copycat trends show how people truly do what they see or consider
desirable in media - the impressionable copy without thinking and the
immoral satisfy dark desires by enacting what they've come to fantasize
about. The different variety of movies and entertainment mentioned here
also shows we can't get rid of or censor everything that people might
imitate. Media, like 365 Days, that crosses the line into clearly
unacceptable should obviously be rid of, but what of other content that
is not clearly unacceptable?
We can only
do what I stated before - teach and model the right morals, depend on
God, and limit what is unacceptable. We should not consume or support
media that makes bad behavior desirable. And we should stop supporting
companies and services, like Netflix, that show more concern for profit
than the well-being and betterment of people[7].
