Disney Plus blocks Kids from Watching movies with Racist Stereotypes

Disney Plus blocks Kids from Watching movies with Racist Stereotypes

Children can no longer view "The Jungle Book" or "Lady and the Tramp" on Disney Plus without the intervention of an adult guardian. Disney Plus has quietly blocked children's profiles from accessing content that has been issued advisories regarding racist depictions.

Last October, Disney launched its "Stories Matter" initiative, adding advisories to films with "negative portrayals or unfair treatment of people or cultures." In this move, first noticed by Polygon, Disney Plus went even further by restricting children under the age of 7 from searching and watching movies with these warnings, including Dumbo, Peter Pan, Aristocats, and Swiss Family Robinson.

Normal Disney Plus profiles can search for and play these films with a non-skippable message: "This program contains negative portrayals and abuse of people and cultures. This program contains negative and abusive depictions of people and cultures. Rather than removing this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful effects, learn from it, and spark conversations to create a more inclusive future together."

While Disney has not announced the change, it is clear that the company intends to have parents supervise their children's viewing and contextualize the racist representations and stereotypes found in some of its library titles. Parents can obtain more information from the "Stories Matter" website.

This is not Disney's only effort to address racism. The company is also reworking the Splash Mountain and Jungle Cruise rides at its theme parks to remove racist iconography.

When the Stories Matter program was launched, Disney said, "We can't change the past, but we can acknowledge it, learn from it, and move forward together to create a tomorrow that today can only dream of."

Categories