Life is brutal, but thankfully not as brutal as some filmmaker’s fantasy. In the Korean Netflix series “Squid Game” For example, highly indebted people become some kind of gladiators, they have to take part in games, and if they fail to prove themselves, they are thrown into the depths or simply shot. In terms of content, it is a mixture of the novels and films of the “Hunger Games” series, in which the rich let the poor fight for their survival in hunger games, and Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ feature film “Bacurau”, in which a group by American super-rich in Brazil to hunt poor villagers for fun and for a lot of money.
“Bacurau” won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, a highly acclaimed film that was critical of capitalism and that did not attract too many audiences. It’s completely different with “Squid Game” – the series is the biggest popular success of the streaming provider Netflix at all and blossomed into a phenomenon that resulted in tik-tok challenges and bitter discussions because the series is now being debated or even re-enacted in schoolyards, although this is probably not done from a cinematic or socially critical point of view. And which in turn raises the question of whether and how children in schoolyards even get to watch this series, which Netflix recommends for ages 16+.
The FSK, the voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, has now pointed out that the series was never submitted to it for review. She doesn’t have to either. “An examination by the FSK is voluntary and can be applied for by all providers of cinematic content. There is no legal obligation to submit,” says the statement from the FSK, and: “Providers in the online area can assess their content for themselves are development-impairing for children or adolescents of a certain age. “
Even for a movie or a DVD, the control is voluntary – however, the sponsoring body of the FSK, the SPIO, the leading organization of the German film industry, has committed itself to having content evaluated there in terms of the protection of minors, which is not evaluated not at all the way to the cinema, there is a similar procedure for television. For a cinema, for example, the approval is then binding. If an operator would let unaccompanied 12-year-olds into a cinema show, even though the film shown is only released from the age of 16, he could face a fine. Netflix could also submit films and series to the FSK, but streaming platforms and other network providers of films are not obliged to do so. However, you have to classify content and, in accordance with the Youth Protection Act, offer a kind of filter, a parental control system – that means: Netflix also classifies series, “Squid Game” from 16 years of age. Adults can activate a lock that ensures that content that is not intended for children can only be accessed with a PIN code.