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Even before the Italian-language teen drama “Baby” was released on Netflix, director Andrea De Sica was responding to criticism that the series promoted sex trafficking: “That was the most delicate thing and issue about doing this series,” he said. “For us, the real story just was to spotlight one of the important neighborhoods of Rome, which from the outside world gives the image of a perfect world, but was something dark, with something happening beyond the facade. It moves from this very rich world that is frustrated about getting real relationships, love, and then getting onto this path of transgression, where two of these six main characters give into prostitution.”

Inspired by a real-life scandal involving underage prostitution, “Baby” explores the lives of high school students in one of Rome’s wealthy districts and how pressures, disillusionment, and failed relationships lead the teens to choose dangerous paths. Two of them...

At a preview Tuesday of “Baby,” its second Italian original scripted series, Netflix was eager to defuse the controversy over the show’s storyline, which involves teen prostitution and takes its cue from a real-life scandal in Rome.

Andrea De Sica (“Children of the Night”), one of the show’s two directors, called it “the story of how a group of youths can embark on an adventure in the labyrinths of transgression, at times even getting lost.” The series bows on Netflix globally on Friday.

“We tried to be as faithful as possible to their conflicts and their choices,” De Sica told reporters at a screening of two “Baby” episodes. He added that “what you’ve seen is not a chronicle of real life events” and “it’s up to you to draw your conclusions.”

The show is loosely based on the discovery in 2014 that two high school girls from...