Bangladesh, May 13 -- For years, Netflix cultivated an image as the friendly face of modern entertainment: ad-free, family-oriented, and supposedly safer than the algorithm-driven chaos of social media. Parents were encouraged to believe that a subscription to the streaming giant offered a controlled digital environment where children could watch cartoons and family films without being subjected to invasive surveillance or manipulative advertising practices.

Now, that image is under direct legal assault.

A lawsuit filed by Ken Paxton in Texas accuses Netflix of secretly harvesting massive amounts of user data – including information tied to children – while misleading the public about how that information was used. According...