Program Note
“Looking for an actress who can impeccably play a 12-year-old girl.” This audition ad put up by documentary directors, Vit Klusak and Barbora Chalupova, made its final selection of three actresses. Three rooms for a 12-year-old girl were set up with cameras and microphones installed. The actresses then made fake online profiles and as soon as they were uploaded, hundreds of middle-aged men applied for video sex chatting.
Caught in the Net, a documentary made from a suggestion by an internet company in the Czech Republic, vividly shows that the digital sex crimes that have become the no.1 global problem are not just about a few people from a faraway country, but something that is threatening our children right here and now. This documentary is also courting further controversy regarding the ethics of the film. Produced in collaboration with the Czech Republic police department, information about actual sex offenders was passed on, leading to an extensive investigation. (Jin PARK)