"Based on real events": Netflix series about schoolgirls-prostitutes caused outrage

Netflix was at the center of another scandal. The Italian TV series "Baby", which describes the life of high school girls selling their bodies, public organizations demand to be immediately removed from the air, as propaganda of teenage prostitution and the promotion of sex traffic.

The series tells about the life of two 16-year-old students from a prestigious Roman school. Girls suffer because they cannot afford what is available to their classmates from rich families and decide to earn by trading themselves.

The plot itself is already capable of causing a storm of indignation among the champions of morality, but the fact that the series is based on absolutely real events that took place, as in the film, in one of the schools of the Eternal City, causes even greater bitterness among the hypocrites.

In 2013, by no means chaste Italy was shaken by a sex scandal, the echoes of which swept across Europe. Journalists immediately assigned the name Baby Squillo to the event — this is how child prostitution is called in the jargon of Roman working-class districts.

It was impossible to come up with a more accurate name, since the two main characters of the loud story were two schoolgirls from good families, one of whom was 14 and the other was 15 years old. Young prostitutes offered themselves to adult men, and their services were in great demand.

The schoolgirls began their sex activities in 2013, as they needed money to satisfy their growing demands. The idea of prostitution came to friends after the introduction of the query "easy money" in the search bar. The young ladies lacked beautiful clothes, expensive jewelry and independence, which forced them to start "working" under the pseudonyms Angela and Agnes.

Clicking on one of the thematic links on the web, the schoolgirls began to communicate with pimps Nunzio Pizzacella and Mirko Ieni, who began to dedicate the girls to the wisdom of the oldest profession.

For the new workers, Mirko Yeni rented an apartment where the schoolgirls could meet with their clients. The daily earnings of young prostitutes amounted to 500-600 euros, which they had enough for a "beautiful life" in the form of branded clothing, expensive cosmetics and jewelry.

When the mother of 14-year-old Agnes accidentally found out what her daughter was doing, she not only did not stop the girl, but also began to demand that she pay her bills. In addition, the police were able to record a conversation between the girl and her mother, where the woman, in response to her daughter's complaints that she was tired and it was difficult for her to combine work with study, advises her to learn lessons before and after work, and also try to go "to the panel" on weekends.

A woman for whom money was more important than her daughter received 6 years in prison and was deprived of parental rights. Angela's mother behaved quite differently - noticing that her daughter began to have money from nowhere, she reported it to the police. As a result of the investigation into the case of two underage prostitutes, a whole network was revealed that supplied underage girls to rich clients.

Among the men who used the services of Agnes, Angela and other schoolgirls were large entrepreneurs, police officers, civil servants and even a UN employee. In total, more than 50 men were included in the list. One of them, police officer Mauro Floriani, turned out to be the husband of Benito Mussolini's granddaughter, Alessandra Mussolini, a popular politician in Italy.

Prostitution in Italy is not a crime, but it is quite another thing when schoolgirls are engaged in it. It is quite obvious that the clients of the girls knew that they were dealing with minors, so justice was ruthless to lovers of corrupt love. All of Agnes and Angela's clients were sentenced to heavy fines, and some went to jail. Pimp Yeni received 10 years in prison, and his partner, Pizzachello, who, by the way, turned out to be a serviceman — 7 years.

Even before the release of the Baby series on screens, in January 2018, the American National Center for Sexual Exploitation appealed to the management of Netflix with a request to refuse to broadcast the series. However, neither the copyright holder company nor the creators of the series agree with the formulations of the moralists.

The director of the series, Andrea de Sica, told reporters that he took on a serious responsibility to show the problems of modern teenagers who have fallen into an adult night world full of dangers and unexpected consequences. Especially de Sica emphasized in an interview the fact that there are completely no bed scenes in the series.

Representatives of Netflix completely ignore the attacks on the picture, without giving any comments and continuing to show the series that caused such a violent reaction.