At times it seems nearly impossible to find movies or shows anymore that don’t contain graphic sexual images and objectifying scenes and storylines. So many of us start a night wanting to relax and watch something entertaining, but instead leave the couch angry and frustrated at the lack of viewing options free of gratuitous sex scenes, sexual violence, or otherwise upsetting, triggering material. Sometimes just scanning featured or trending content on various platforms is discouraging enough. In fact, both Netflix and Amazon were featured on the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s Dirty Dozen List 2021 for profiting from sexually exploitative material.
Fortunately, there is a company empowering individuals and families to keep content that contradicts their values off of their TV screens. VidAngel is a streaming video company that “provides a way to skip or mute things you don’t want to see or hear in movies and TV shows.” So much of popular media has scenes people don’t want to be exposed to—either themselves or their kids—embedded in storylines these viewers may otherwise enjoy.
How VidAngel Changes the Game
VidAngel believes that people have a right to keep content they’re uncomfortable with out of their homes without having to sacrifice such a large percentage of entertainment options currently available. This led them to create a product that can mute profanity and racial slurs, as well as skip graphic violence, disturbing images, and nudity, all based on your personal choices and settings. The filters can be applied to Netflix and Amazon (Prime Video, Movies Anywhere through Amazon) and is compatible with a host of devices. Filters can be used in a few ways. You can set them as defaults for all titles or you can choose specific filters for each title. Parental controls allow users to lock all filters with a pin.
VidAngel has a “community of taggers” who review content for objectionable material. They are committed to ensuring that taggers only review movies they’d choose to watch if they weren’t being paid to do so, as they do not want taggers to be exposed to content they’re uncomfortable with.
For their innovative tool to filter undesirable language and images from assaulting the viewers eyes and ears unnecessarily, and for proactively producing “clean” content, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation is awarding VidAngel with this month’s Dignity Defense Alert.
To learn more about VidAngel and how it works, visit their website!
Help us fight sexploitation in entertainment!
While we’re so glad VidAngel exists, we wish it didn’t have to. We will continue pushing on streaming services to clean up their content. Please email Netflix executives here, letting them know you want them to remove Cuties (yes, it’s still on there) and other sexually exploitative and degrading content they currently host on their platform.
Lastly, we invite you to learn more here about Amazon’s plans for a sexualized Lord of the Rings series and then sign the petition to Amazon Studios at the end of the blog.
