Netflix announces 'Baby' series

(by Nicoletta Tamberlich).
    (ANSA) - Rome, November 16 - The true story of a prostitution ring with high school students from Rome's upscale Parioli neighborhood will become a television series to air on Netflix, the company has announced.
    The series, to be called 'Baby', is inspired by the high-profile case four years ago of two teen prostitutes who worked out of an apartment in the Parioli district, Netflix said on Wednesday.
    It will include eight episodes and will be produced by Fabula Pictures.
    Filming will start in 2018.
    The series will focus on a group of teens from Parioli who are searching for their identity and independence while dealing with controversial love stories, family pressure and shared secrets.
    "I made a lot of money, up to 5-600 a day", said one of the two teens involved in the case when she was questioned by magistrates.
    The girls were 14 and 15 at the time. "I spent what I made in luxury clothes and cell phones", said the teen.
    The two students worked from an apartment in Parioli while a 30-year-old man organized their appointments with middle-aged businessmen, politicians and law enforcement officials, among others.
    After launching Suburra La Serie and launching the production of a docu-series to be called Juventus FC, Netflix has now announced its third original Italian series.
    Baby explores the world of Italian teenagers - the dangers they face, their frailty and lack of ideals, authors said.
    Five young screenwriters who have formed the 'Grams' collective - Antonio Le Fosse, Eleonora Trucchi, Marco Raspanti, Giacomo Mazzariol and Re Salvador - have written the series together with writers Isabella Aguilar and Giacomo Durzi.
    Netflix, the largest online streaming platform worldwide with over 109 million subscribers in 190 countries, said the series is a "unique and unprecedented case" for the platform.
    The true story on which the series is based was discovered after the mother of the 14-year-old teen went to the police because she couldn't understand why her daughter had so much money and received "strange" text messages.
    The other mother was instead sentenced to six years and four months in jail by Italy's supreme Cassation Court as an accomplice.
    The Cassation in 2016 also sentenced, among others, Mirko Ieni to four years and three months for pimping the teens.
    In his closing argument, Cassation prosecutor, Ciro Angelillis, said that all defendants were "aware" that the teens were minors, that they "went to school" and "didn't have a driving license".