Panaji: The Netflix booth at the Inox courtyard is seen crowded all the time with youngsters playing quizzes, games and winning prizes. It’s the third year that Netflix has set up such a booth at the IFFI and on a normal day it gets 700-900 visitors, while on weekends this number goes up to 1000. Directors, producers, storytellers, script writers and actors including Indra Tiwari, Nilesh Mishra, Nadira (actor from France), Munjal Shroff etc have visited the booth and interacted with the audience.
“We have games like ‘find the word’ where youth find themselves engaged in, apart from maturity rating games for parental controls. The board has words associated with Netflix and the participants have to hunt for them. Those who win get prizes. There’s also a puzzle about the Mighty Bheem character. Our booth is becoming a one-stop destination especially for youths,” said Vikram Singh, co-founder at Social & Media Matters at Netflix.
Singh explained that Netflix is trying to bring awareness on guidelines among the parents regarding their children, and keep them informed about what they watch on Netflix. After Australia, Malaysia also has brought a ban on social media use by children under 16. When asked how Netflix is keeping control over what is being viewed by whom, Singh said, “We cater to audiences of all ages – starting from 7 plus, 13 plus, 16 plus and adults unlike the only two categories in films – A and U. Most parents subscribe to their children, filling their details about age and gender etc in their profiles. We have arrangements to make available only that content which is appropriate for that age group. The other content is locked for them. This is one way to keep a check on what the kids watch, which we follow religiously.”
And in Goa, Netflix conducts workshops in colleges where professors and students learn how to make the best of the content they serve, while keeping a check on the age group that’s viewing it. A recent workshop at Ganpat Parsekar College at Arambol trained the students and faculty how to make profile and subscribe in the particular age group.
BY Bharati Pawaskar
