Now that Netflix has officially withdrawn its bid to acquire Warner Bros. and the harsh glare of public scrutiny has, at least for the moment, abated, Ted Sarandos may be hoping to slink discreetly back into the shadows and continue business as usual. I hope we do not let that happen because streaming media, and Netflix in particular, is due for a reckoning.
In debates and media coverage about the possible cultural and economic impact of a merger, Netflix executives seemed genuinely surprised to discover there was so much antipathy toward the company. They clearly have not been paying attention. Viewers have had a love-hate relationship with Netflix for more than a decade, and in recent years, it has more frequently teetered toward discontent.
Half of television viewing is now done over a streaming service, only about 20% is watched on broadcast television, and a roughly equal proportion is watched over cable. Families, in particular, are drawn to streaming media because it provides something that broadcast and cable cannot: the ability to let your child watch their favorite program on YOUR schedule, not the network’s. That makes streaming services “stickier” for families with young children.
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Children’s programming is both the bait and the hook for attracting and keeping long-term subscribers, which is why streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV+ have been investing heavily in children’s programming. Young adults tend to “churn” their streaming subscriptions because streaming services are easier to cancel and restart than traditional cable subscriptions. They can sign up for a 7-day free trial, binge-watch their favorite show or shows, and then drop it again within the 7-day window and never pay a dime. By contrast, as one market analyst observed, “Parents are willing to pay to keep their kids happy, and, once a kid is hooked on a show, mom or dad will likely do what it takes to keep the episodes streaming. … If my two-and-a-half-year-old was deprived of Curious George, my life would be such living hell.”
So, many of Netflix’s subscribers have made a kind of Faustian bargain: They willingly turn a blind eye to all that they know is wrong with Netflix for the sake of convenience, familiarity, a deep streaming library, and pop-culture fluency. But there is a lot that is wrong with Netflix. It is getting harder to ignore, and the risks are far greater than they ever were on broadcast or ad-supported cable.
Even before the most recent controversy around LGBT content in Netflix children’s programming, the company was frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons. Such as when the teen-targeted original series, 13 Reasons Why, was tied to a 28.9% increase in suicide rates among U.S. youth ages 10 to 17 in the month (April 2017) following the show’s release. When asked whether the company would take the series down in light of this connection, former CEO and current board member Reid Hastings responded, “It is controversial, but nobody has to watch it.”
Or when Netflix provoked a strong backlash for streaming the French film Cuties, which features 11-year-old girls in sexually suggestive performances.
There has been a cultural shift over the past decade, but like the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water, most consumers did not feel it coming. If we are honest with ourselves, I think we all recognize that the coarsening of popular culture coincides with the rise of streaming media, and Netflix established the baseline.
More than half of Netflix’s programming is rated TV‑MA, signaling just how deeply the platform has leaned into mature content as its business model. This trend has only intensified as streaming has overtaken traditional television, yet it operates without any meaningful regulatory oversight.
This is precisely why Netflix is uniquely challenging for families.
That lack of oversight leaves parents navigating a patchwork of platform‑specific, voluntary labeling systems, each using its own standards, terminology, and levels of disclosure. What passes as a “TV‑14” or “PG‑13” equivalent on one service may bear little resemblance to similarly rated content on another. This inconsistency is not a minor inconvenience; it is a structural gap created by a system built for another era.
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The public deserves an independent review of content and ratings, not labels crafted by the same companies that profit from pushing the boundaries of what families consider acceptable. An external ratings body optimized for the streaming age, perhaps overseen by the FCC (which currently has no jurisdiction over streaming media), could provide the consistency and transparency Congress intended when it first tethered content ratings to parental control tools.
Netflix does not need Warner Bros. to establish market dominance. As a pioneer in the streaming industry, it already has brand recognition and familiarity. What it lacks is accountability and trust. Establishing itself as a brand that families can trust is the key to Netflix’s future growth. It needs transparency. And it needs to demonstrate that its pursuit of cultural influence will not come at the expense of the family audiences who built its success.
Melissa Henson is the senior policy adviser for Media and Culture for Concerned Women for America, the nation’s public policy women’s organization, dedicated to promoting biblical values and constitutional principles in public policy. On X: @CWforA
