Parents Beware of HBO’s New Show, The Idol, Which Rolling StoneDubs “Twisted Torture Porn”

Written by PTC | Published May 17, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC (May 16, 2023) – The Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) is warning parents about HBO’s The Idol ahead of its June 4 premiere. Rolling Stone describes The Idol as a “darker, crazier, and more risqué version” of HBO’s Euphoria. The Idol stars popular entertainers Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd.

“Given that Euphoria is a teen-targeted show – and one of streaming media’s most explicit – parents need to be aware of The Idol, another Sam Levinson-created series that Rolling Stone calls ‘twisted torture porn.’ Levinson is known for his raunchy, explicit, boundary-pushing programming, reflected in Euphoria. Reviews of The Idol – and HBO’s own marketing of the program – appear to promise the same,” said PTC Vice President Melissa Henson.

Euphoria, a show about high school aged characters, has depicted child rape, full-frontal male and female nudity of both adult and child characters, illicit drug use by teen characters, pornography use by teen and adult characters, and frequent expletives (714 uses of the ‘f-word’ over 8 episodes). Euphoria has been touted by HBO as its “youngest-skewing drama series.”

Euphoria has normalized these destructive behaviors and marketed them to impressionable teens and children. No doubt HBO will do the same with The Idol. Young viewers will stand to lose the most by yet another program that will desensitize them to glamorized sexually exploitative content. Parents must be aware and take action to protect their children, both on the HBO streaming platform and from content marketed to them by HBO on social media,” Henson said.

In November 2022, PTC research revealed that Hollywood is marketing teen-targeted TV shows with explicit adult content to young teens through social media sites popular with 13-17-year-olds. HBO uses TikTok and Instagram as a marketing platform for its original series. The “#euphoria” hashtag alone took users to a landing page that carried the network’s branding. On Instagram, the “Euphoria” official page has had 7.8 million followers, while 60+ users have their own “Euphoria” fan pages; and the “Euphoria” tag was used on over 3.7 million posts. On TikTok, the hashtag “euphoria” had amassed nearly 50 billion views as of August 2022.

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