As a girl, actress Brooke Shields appeared in two different movies which placed her front-and-center in controversies about children and on-screen sexuality. At age 12, she starred in Pretty Baby, portraying Violet, a 12-year-old girl living with her mother in a New Orleans brothel at the turn of the 20th century. Eventually, Violet is plied into the prostitution trade as well, and her virginity is even auctioned off to the highest bidder. After Pretty Baby's release in 1978, the film—and Shields' nudity in it—was criticized by many, and the movie was even banned in two Canadian provinces.
Just two years later, Shields appeared in another heavily sexualized movie, The Blue Lagoon. At age 14, Shields portrayed a shipwrecked girl growing up on an island with only her cousin (Christopher Atkins) for company. As they reach puberty, they eventually fall in love and even have a child. The Blue Lagoon has several nude scenes involving Shields which raised eyebrows, but the cast and crew claimed most of those scenes involved body doubles.