LOS ANGELES—Saying that new complaints have arisen from adult performers over the Netflix docu-series Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) stated Tuesday morning that it is demanding a meeting with the series' producers and Netflix's chief content officer.
After receiving no direct response to a letter it sent April 28, the FSC sent a second letter today detailing new complaints by performers about the ethics of the series, including specific incidents of harassment that have followed the broadcast of the controversial series. The new letter is signed by over 50 activists, performers, doctors, academics and sex workers rights organizations.
In addition to the requested meeting to address performer concerns, the FSC asks in today's letter for producers to obscure legal names and other identifying features of performers who did not consent to the disclosures.
“Over the past several weeks, numerous performers have come forward, both publicly and privately, saying that they were deceived and exposed by the producers of the series,” FSC executive director Eric Paul Leue said. “As a result of the series' serious disclosures of performers’ real names, performers have been threatened, and their family members harassed. We are asking Netflix and the Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On team to meet with performer advocates about possible remedies.”
The follow-up letter reads in part:
It is difficult to believe that Netflix condones the unethical, and legally questionable, practices employed by the producers of Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, considering that they are in direct conflict with Netflix’s stated values, the ethics of documentary filmmaking, and the core tenets of our industry. These practices have, and continue to cause serious harm, yet nothing is being done by either the producers or Netflix to protect the vulnerable …
The performer whose legal name was exposed in the documentary against their will, and despite verbal promises from producers, has since our last letter had her family harassed. Mail containing graphic images of her work was recently received at her mother’s home address, family members at different addresses have received similar mail, and the performer has been threatened online …
Contrary to the producers’ assumptions, not all exposure is good. Webcam models have the right to limit the states or countries where their shows can be seen, so that family members, neighbors, landlords, predators or others can not access or identify them. When the series shows a customer logging into the member areas of webcam sites, several models’ faces, names, and other identifiable characteristics are clearly visible. In broadcasting these streams to an international audience, Netflix has unwittingly outed them, bypassing a standard industry practice intended to protect models.
Read FSC's full second letter here.
