Netflix is facing backlash after airing an interview with a Michigan mother who admitted to sending months of vitriolic, sexual and self-harm–encouraging text messages to her then-12-year-old daughter and the girl’s boyfriend in the streaming service’s new documentary Unknown Caller: The High School Catfish.
The documentary recounts the long investigation into anonymous messages that began in October 2020 and continued intermittently for almost two years, targeting Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny of Beal City, Michigan. The FBI eventually traced the texts to Lauryn’s mother, Kendra Licari, who pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a minor and was sentenced to 19 months to five years in prison. She was released in August of last year but remains barred from seeing her daughter.
Viewers on X (formerly Twitter) criticized Netflix for giving Licari screen time to explain and justify her actions without what some described as sufficient challenge from the filmmakers. Comments shared on the platform accused the streamer of "platforming predators" and of allowing Licari to frame her conduct as the product of trauma rather than predation. One user wrote that producers "didn't expand on the fact she's a predator and not just a stalker," while another said the film blurred "the line between exposing truth and platforming manipulation."
In the film, producers include on-camera statements from Licari, who admitted to sending the messages and described a spiral of behavior she said stemmed from emotional distress and earlier trauma. She told filmmakers she sometimes spent between one and eight hours a day sending texts, and that she had been let go from two jobs during the period in which the harassment occurred. Law enforcement officials shown in the documentary describe using IP tracking to link the anonymous numbers to devices associated with Licari.
The texts, sent from randomly generated numbers so they could not easily be blocked, included sexually explicit language, taunts about appearance and messages urging the teenager to kill herself. The harassment intensified after Lauryn and McKenny, who had been a couple since middle school, broke up. The case prompted involvement from local school officials and multiple law-enforcement agencies. School administrators pulled students from class to investigate and installed cameras in efforts to identify the sender, while local police worked with the Michigan State Police before enlisting the FBI.
Sheriff Mike Main and an FBI liaison shown in the documentary describe the months-long probe that culminated in a search warrant and Licari’s admission. In interviews featured in the film, Lauryn said the messages damaged her mental health and changed how she perceived herself. She told filmmakers the initial shock at learning her mother was responsible turned to sadness and anger.
Owen McKenny and his parents are also interviewed in the documentary. Owen said he found the discovery that a close family friend—Lauryn’s mother had been close with Owen’s mother—was behind the harassment "crazy," and said Licari’s behavior had felt unsettlingly personal even before investigators identified her. Owen’s mother described what she saw as an obsessive interest from Licari in her son, including attending sporting events after the couple’s breakup.
Licari pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a minor. In documentary footage she acknowledges sending messages and offered explanations that include references to personal trauma and mental-health struggles. She also told filmmakers she hoped someday to rebuild a relationship with her daughter; Lauryn, now a college student studying criminology, said she wants her mother in her life but described significant harm and estrangement.
The film’s presentation of Licari’s account drew particular criticism from viewers who said producers at times prompted or encouraged explanations that downplayed culpability. One social-media commenter cited a moment in which a producer suggested to Licari that she might have been texting herself; the viewer said that exchange felt like giving Licari a way to recast herself as a victim. Other viewers questioned whether the documentary adequately centered the harm done to the teenagers.
Netflix did not immediately provide comment to the Daily Mail, which reported on the social-media response. The documentary joins a wider conversation in the entertainment industry about how films and series that profile real-life crimes and scandals balance access to sources with ethical concerns about amplifying voices that have caused harm. Filmmakers and platforms have defended interviews with convicted or accused people as a way to present multiple perspectives and help explain motives, but critics argue such access can rehabilitate or normalize harmful actors if not rigorously interrogated.
Prosecutors, law-enforcement officials and the families involved are shown in the documentary describing both the investigative work and the emotional fallout. Local officials—including Beal City school administrators—recount their efforts to halt the harassment, which at its height produced dozens of messages to the teenagers each day and prompted parents to read their children’s phones and remove devices from bedrooms.
Lauryn and Owen said the barrage of texts affected their social lives and mental well-being. Lauryn described second-guessing what to wear and feeling diminished by messages that attacked her body and personal worth. Owen said the messages strained the relationship and contributed to its end. Both teens and their families participated in the investigation and appear on camera to describe the consequences.
Unknown Caller: The High School Catfish is the latest Netflix documentary to prompt debate over editorial choices in true-crime and real-life storytelling. Viewers and industry observers continue to debate how documentary makers should handle interviews with confessed offenders and whether streaming platforms have a duty to more forcefully contextualize or counter statements that might minimize or justify criminal behavior.
The film presents the police timeline, Licari’s admissions and the families’ perspectives, and it closes with the legal outcome: Licari’s guilty plea and sentence. The documentary also includes on-camera reflections from the victims about the ongoing impact of the abuse and their efforts to move forward.