A youth sexual education charity in the Netherlands is facing backlash for a video they produced featuring children as young as 4 being interviewed on pleasure, sex, and their masturbation habits. The Rutgers Foundation, which has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hastily deleted the clip from social media after it prompted outrage.
The video, titled Wat vind ik Fijn, or “What Do I Like,” was originally released in March for The Week of Spring Jitters, a national project that aims to teach primary students about sex. In the 5-minute-long clip, children between the ages of 4 and 10 are seen talking to their parents or adult guardians about their bodies.
Some of the scenes from the video include a mother speaking to her 4-year-old son about how he plays with his penis, and a gay couple asking their 6-year-old if he enjoys it when someone “pets” him.
Other scenes incorporate discussions about sex and pleasure.
“Sex is not only functional when you’re just making babies,” one mother says to her 9-year-old daughter. “I’ve said before that it’s also fun to do. You discover how your body works and how my body works.”
The woman continues to educate her child about orgasms, asking the girl if she has ever looked at her genitals before. “You have your inner labia, and then there are two little holes there – one for peeing, and one where the baby comes out,” adding that the “little button” above the holes is called a clitoris.
In another disturbing part of the video, one of the moms asks her young son if he ever touches his private parts: “What about you? Do you ever play with your willy?”
After he admits to it, the woman then asks the 4-year-old how it feels and if he touches himself while eating or in the classroom. After denying that he does, she asks him where an appropriate location to play with his penis would be.
According to AD News, the video caused an uproar amongst parents and was rapidly taken down by the Rutgers Foundation in response to the backlash. Despite removing the content, Rutgers posted a lengthy Twitter thread justifying the video, adding that the criticism they were facing was “utter nonsense.”
A populist political party in the Netherlands, the Forum for Democracy (FVD), quickly re-uploaded the deleted content to their YouTube channel, concluding the clips with slogan demanding the “woke indoctrination” in schools stop.
The FVD also launched a petition calling for the protection of “children against woke activism and LGBTI propaganda.” A large focus of the petition is the “child sexual education” materials Rutgers has been recommending, some of which they say contains inappropriate content for minors.
FVD notes that one book Rutgers has recommended for children includes education and instruction on oral sex.
As of the writing of this article, the petition has over 63,000 signatures.
The video with an English translation was re-uploaded to social media by pro-child safeguarding outlet Reduxx on June 8.
The Rutgers Foundation has been fighting to scrub the video from the internet and, in March, threatened the FVD with legal action if they did not cease distributing it.
“The parents and children have not given [FVD] permission to publish the video,” explained a Rutgers spokesperson. “We are prepared to defend the protection of our children to the highest court.”
Currently, the video is still up on the FVD’s YouTube channel and has nearly 110,000 views.
