Outrage at new Dutch TV show featuring nude adults answering questions from kids

Edson da Graça and some of the cast of Gewoon Bloot.
Edson da Graça and some of the cast of Gewoon Bloot. Photo credit: NTR

A television show featuring naked adults answering questions from children is causing outrage in the Netherlands before it even airs. 

Gewoon Bloot, which translates to Just Naked, will air its first episode on March 21 - but some of the country's politicians are trying to shut it down.

Tunahan Kuzu, leader of party Politieke Beweging Denk, has urged supporters to write to the NPO - the country's public broadcaster - telling it to scrap the show, reports DutchNews.nl. Another - Thierry Baudet, leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy, has claimed the show "comes close to promoting pedophilia".

Another party, the Christian-based SGP, said they'd be bringing up the show in Parliament. 

"What a disgusting program at the NPO. Let children ask questions of naked people," the party tweeted. "This is a violation of chastity and contrary to morals. SGP asks written parliamentary questions. Let's stop this very soon!"

"The program has been produced very carefully," a spokesperson for NTR, the production company behind Gewoon Bloot told NOS, the Dutch equivalent of RNZ. 

Adults initially walk out in bathrobes, before taking them off in full view of the kids, aged 11 to 3, who get to ask any questions they like.

"During the program, there was extensive talk with children about what was going to happen and they were able to indicate how they felt during the program."

In the first episode, the children reportedly ask questions about insecurities and waxing, but not sex - the topic never came up, according to the show's producers. 

Experts from Rutgers, a Netherlands-based sexual research centre, were involved in the show's development. Spokesperson Elsbeth Reitzema told NOS it was better kids see and learn about normal bodies than get all their information from porn.

"They give a distorted picture of reality... it is important that children know what real bodies look like and that every body is different."

Gewoon Bloot is based on a Danish show, Ultra Smider Tøjet (Ultra Strips Down), which has been running for two years already. It won best children's programme at a Danish TV festival, DutchNews.nl reports. 

Nudity has a long history in Dutch TV - as far back as 1974, educational TV show Open en Bloot (Open and Naked) featured not just animated adult nudity, but the first use of the word 'f**king' on Dutch TV.