Televisual Child Abuse

A new genre of television is threatening to elbow out the lifestyle and property programmes: children and teenagers with behavioural problems.
Blame The Parents.....The House of Tiny Tearaways.....Brat Camp.....Bad Behaviour.....Families Behaving Badly.....and so on.
I've glimpsed some of these and not seen others at all but I've seen enough to convince me that, even with full parental consent, they are an indefensible invasion of children's privacy and a form of child abuse.
The producers will claim thay are educational and show parents how to deal with difficult children. They are actually the worst kind of voyeuristic entertainment and exploit the most vulnerable who are too young to give informed consent. For all television is entertainment, even 'serious' programmes like Newsnight or Horizon.

Let's put this in context with the following observations:
It's a principle of our criminal justice system that children under 16 remain anonymous in most cases.
Many European countries, though not Britain, do not allow children to appear in television commercials.
Tony Blair fiercely protects his children's privacy (except at election time of course), slapping an injunction on a former nanny and refusing to say if Leo had an innoculation.
At the height of the paedophilia hysteria, many schools banned parents from bringing cameras to school plays and sports events.
Yet now we have children with behavioural problems being filmed 24 hours a day and broadcast to millions of viewers on primetime television.

A sickening variation is a new BBC programme where well-behaved children have to recruit a new partner for their single parent. Equally exploitative in its own way, all you need to know is that animated stardust is periodically sprinkled across the screen.

Bad Behaviour, which started on Channel 4 last night, uses the common formula of an expert who advises parents on coping strategies. Last night's programme was undeniably intriguing, if only because it lacked the 'class angle' of inviting us to spy on the strange lives of the underclass. The family was a mother, stepfather and six riotous boys. They were a middle-class and reasonably affluent family and both parents were committed Christians. The mother's second husband was revealed to her in a dream which she said was a vision from God. If true, this suggests that the Almighty has far too much time on his hands.
The most shocking thing in the programme was not the behaviour of the children but the mother's remark that, without the intervention of the 'expert', at least two of her sons would have had to be found alternative accommodation, by which I assume she meant a foster family or children's home. I don't underestimate the nightmare of badly-behaved children but this was fighting and swearing, not criminal activity or drug addiction. That this devout woman could contemplate banishing two of her six sons to the uncertain fate of being brought up by strangers took my breath away.

The family sat down at a table to eat their dinner, preceded by a full Grace in which they thanked God, Jesus and the rest of the mob for their Turkey Twizzlers. Later on, the 11 year old boy told his mother to 'Fuck off, you bitch.' When she told him not to swear he said, in an hilarious piece of role reversal, 'Well, you've got to learn. You shouldn't speak when other people are speaking.' He was in close-up at the time and, trouper that he was, he wasn't going to disappoint.
An older boy refused to go to school and barricaded himself in his room. When his mother had left the house, one of the production team knocked on the door and he instantly opened it with a broad grin on his face and showed the viewers how he built the barricade.

It's probably not too far-fetched to say that children brought up with television have a good understanding of how the medium works and of what makes 'good television'.
And you don't have to be a psychologist or self-styled expert to know that children addicted to bad behaviour want to be the centre of attention in the family. Having a camera crew film every tantrum for weeks on end must be like all their Christmases coming at once. (Few of these shows use hidden filming and sometimes the children give sly grins into the camera like those yobs in the street who wave to the CCTV cameras.)
So one has the ludicrous situation where the 'expert' is telling the parents to remain politely indifferent and not to react, while a cameraman, sound man and director are running round the house to capture every punch and expletive. It wouldn't surprise me if they do the odd re-take. I know how many re-takes I've had to do just doing a plain TV interview because the sound level was wrong or the lighting wasn't right.

One of the mysteries of the age is why people are so ready to reveal the most intimate secrets of their lives to television cameras. If they are adults, fair enough. But for young children to have their family home invaded and their behaviour displayed to relatives, school friends and millions of unknown people is a form of child abuse that society should not tolerate.
Some people will scream 'nanny State' but the Government should have the guts to get its Children's Minister to sit down with OFCOM, the TV regulator, and put a stop to anyone under 16 having their private family lives turned into prime time entertainment.