Abuse on Reality TV Essay

An incident of electric shaver abuse occurs every ten seconds, and more than five children die every day as a result. Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse ar under the age of four. Reports take kept a steady growth rate for the noncurrent ten divisions, with the total number of reports nationwide increasing 45% since 1987. Since 1985, the rate of child abuse fatalities has increased by nearly 40%. These statistics were taken from a National Abuse Statistics survey. fable Taken from a study on child abuse by Childhelp.org, this graph represents the number of child deaths per day due(p) to child abuse and neglect. As shown, the number has significantly increased, and is still continuing to increase. Many cases of child abuse have been recorded, and in many of those cases, innocent children have died. This is a growing problem and it continues to get worse. Most everyone is familiar with the various types of abuse such as neglect, inner abuse, physical abuse, psycho logical maltreatment, and medical neglect. Sadly, on that point is a new type of child abuse added to the list, the exploitation of young children and their privacy on reality video recording. According to AbuseWatch.net, children must be recognized as child actors if they are to be used in reality shows or any other type of TV production. This is non the case today. Basically, having these children on television without any pay is child labor, and they should legally be protected by child labor laws.The sad situation is TV producers are non employing these minors and are ignoring these child labor laws. Theyre getting away with this crime because the children are considered as participants, like someone in a documentary. Due to this differentiateification, it is forgive from federal and state child labor laws as the childrens activities are being recorded on camera, opposed to the performance of a role. The children are not classified as hired employees, and do not earn a w age. They too do not get benefits that they would receive if they were to be called a child actor. therefore, the childlabor laws are being ignored and these minors are not being employed. In 2007, the series, Kid Nation, abandoned 40 kids, ages 8 to 15, in a fictitious Old Western town. While soak upers watched in agony, these kids spent their days literally left alone.A little female child destroy herself on a stove. These children were neglected for goodness sake. Complaints were made and authorities investigated. Not sole(prenominal) is this against the law, tho it is taking away childrens rights to privacy and, most importantly, their childhood. In a recently aired TLC reality show Dance Moms, children were yelled at and belittled in front of the camera, and thousands of viewers. Andy Dehnart describes his experience with the show in an article. He wrote, During season 1 finale, Mackenzie, 7, started crying while rehearsing for a music video and ran out of the room, pon ytail bouncing over her hot pink sports bra. She found her commence in a back room and ran toward her.Please dont make me go As she hugged her mother, Melissa, Mackenzies head was turned, and her eyes made clear up with the camera, staring right at us. She pulled away, her face a mess of sadness and anger, and pointed accusatorily at the camera and its operators instructiveness. It was extremely evident that this was televised child abuse. This is not the kind of abuse that consists of making a child do something that they dont indigence to do in that particular second, only if abuse that broadcasts moments of a little naive childs life that should never be shown to the public.CAPTION This picture, taken from an article written by Nichelle Strzepe, shows a young girl crying to her mom after her teacher has just finished yelling at her and giving her negative feed back. From a recently conducted interview with Kara Acosta, a young girl with experience in the dancing agency, she s tated that, The teachers on that show are way too strict. It would be difficult for a heavy(p) parent to deal with that type of teaching let alone a young child. Plus their way of teaching is not effective. The kids in my dance class learned best by positive reinforcement. In the article by Sherry Rickmeier, Katherine Heigl states that she watched with open-mouthed amazement as girls as young as seven were encouraged to outfit provocatively and shimmy around a stage doing a dance performance that could just as easily been a burlesque routine.Not only does she comment on the disturbing sexual aspect of the show but alsocomments that, I was also horrified by the way their instructor mouth to them when she felt they werent up to snuff. It was demeaning, belittling, and downright unkind. There is no reason to break anyone down in order to prepare them for inevitable disappointment or unkindness. Especially not a childs. There is a clearly defined line between giving helpful criticism and yelling compressed things at children telling them they are dumb, and stupid. It is highly degrading and pure verbal and emotional abuse. Society as a whole is implying to our children that this is ok. The fact is, its not.This brings us to the television series Toddlers and Tiaras. The show Toddlers and Tiaras began three years ago, and has since drawn in more viewers. In this series, little four year old girls edge around in flashy dresses wear fake eyelashes, fake teeth, and globs of makeup. Not only is this taking away their innocence, but its submitting them to child pornography. Girls outfits include those of sex idols such as Daisy Duke, Dolly Parton, and a prostitute from Pretty Woman.CAPTION This picture, taken by a college student from a communicate on why child beauty pageants are hazardous to childrens health, shows a seven year old who has the face of a twenty year old woman, and is showing off her body to win more points from the judges. An interview conducted with a high school teacher and role model, Mrs. Gorenstein, was recently conducted to show the view of adults on this subject. When asked what she thought the message of the show Toddlers and Tiaras was, she replied saying, This show sends the message that kids can get what they want by being bratty, spirit pretty and flaunting around their looks. She also said, These shows are pushing a very fine line between showing child abuse and providing entertainment. I would say these shows should be taken of the air, but I worry what theyll replace it with. A high school student, Delaney McGinn said, These shows are dumb, pointless, and a waste of money.It is showing kids that its ok to be extremely fake in fact its teaching them how to do it. These parents are selfish and arent letting their children be themselves. Children learn the most in their first orthodontic braces of years, and all these kids are going to learn is how to be snotty and how to throw a fit when you dont get what yo uwant. These children run around looking like miniaturized twenty year olds. The parents of these kids would do anything to have their child win, including hair extensions, caked on makeup, fake eyelashes, spray on tans, fake teeth, and extremely revealing clothing. The want of girls to be happy with natural beauty is punted out the door when it comes to this show. There is absolutely nothing natural about these young children. They look like Barbie dolls.CAPTION This picture is taken from an article written by Dabney B. about why this show is so messed up. This picture shows how fake these little girls are made. They are sexualized, and are freely shown off to the dangers of the world, just for a duad bucks. This little girl looks like a porcelain doll, not a cute natural little girl. There have also been cases of parents doping up their children to make them perform better. A pageant mother claims she prepares her daughter by giving her an unidentified juice drink, pageant chap or go-go juice. No one knew what was in the concoction, and some people were led to believe it had a small amount of alcohol in it along with extremely caffeinated soda drinks.According to the article Are Toddlers and Tiaras mothers DOPING their daughters? by Sadie Whitelocks, the mother, Mrs. Holler, told her daughter to take two big gulps of the drink from an unlabeled drinks bottle. In a couple of seconds the change in the young child was wildly apparent. Moments after having her special drink the young girl started doing stomach spins on the floor. Defining the exploitation of childrens privacy on TV, such as these, as child abuse is a bit complicated. But after looking at all of the evidence, it give be extremely difficult for people to say that it is adequate for this to continue. Youd think after all the child abuse cases related to rape and sexual abuse, one like the John Benet Ramsey case, people would want to end the use of reality TV shows that illustrate these young gi rls in a sexual way, but these shows continue to play on televisions all throughout the country.