How to skip sex scenes on Netflix
Netflix does not have a skip-scene button. Its controls work on whole titles, not on the scenes inside them. Here is what you can do today, on each kind of screen.
There is no skip-scene button
Every so often a post goes round saying Netflix has added a button to skip intimate scenes. It has not. Fact-checkers have looked and found no such feature.
What Netflix's own controls do
Netflix lets the account owner:
- set a maturity rating on a profile, so titles above it do not appear
- block particular titles on a profile
- lock a profile with a PIN
These decide whether a title can be watched at all. None of them touch a scene inside a title you have allowed, which is the problem when the show is one you want to watch.
Skipping by hand
The oldest way still works on any screen: know where the scene is and skip past it. Parent guides such as IMDb's describe what is in a film or episode, and some articles list the scenes episode by episode. It means reading ahead and keeping the remote close, and you will still catch the start of a scene now and then.
Skipping automatically, on a computer
CutCat is a free Chrome extension that does the skipping for you on Netflix. Viewers mark scenes frame by frame, other viewers check them, and when playback reaches a marked scene it jumps past it. You see the story either side and not the part in between. Strong language is muted rather than skipped, so you keep the scene and lose only the line.
- On a computer, add CutCat to Chrome.
- Open Netflix in Chrome.
- In CutCat's settings, choose what to handle: sex, nudity, violence and gore, strong language, kissing. Each one switches on or off by itself.
- Play something. When a marked scene comes up, it is skipped.
Nothing is downloaded or altered. Playback jumps; the film itself is untouched. And it never records what you watch.
What it cannot do
- It only acts on titles viewers have marked. An unmarked film plays as normal. See what is covered; the list grows as viewers mark more.
- It works on Netflix only, not Prime Video or other services.
- It needs Chrome on a computer. It cannot be installed on a phone, a tablet or a smart TV.
On a phone or a TV
CutCat cannot help on those screens. There, a parent guide and the remote are still the way. If you also watch on a laptop, that is where CutCat goes.