Caught in the Net

Vít Klusák and Barbora Chalupová's 2020 Czech documentary sets up an experiment to record adults who target children online. The team builds three separate children's bedrooms in a studio, casts three performers who are over eighteen but look far younger, and opens profiles for them as twelve-year-old girls. Within a short time hundreds and then thousands of men reach those accounts, and the messages, threats and images that arrive go straight onto the record. While presenting that material, the film also shows what the process does to the performers and the crew. Its method has been contested, with the line between documenting and provoking constantly in question. After its release, investigations were opened into some of the men who appear in it. It was named documentary of the year at the Czech Lion awards. Who it's for: viewers who follow online safety, parenting and documentary ethics. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach a film that shows sexual messages sent to children directly.