Child Labour Laws and the Entertainment Industry
Hello fellow Steemians!
It's been a minute since I've posted anything but this question has been kind of nagging at me and I would love to hear what you all think.
In the wake of recent revelations in Hollywood - Weinstein, Spacey and co. and the cries for help from former child actors such as Corey Feldman. I'm interested to know why it is, despite child labour laws being relatively strict across the board throughout the Western World that the entertainment industry seemingly gets a free pass in all of this? The obvious answer is evident to me in that lots of movies and TV shows are in need of child actors but is this really a good enough reason? Young kids used to be chimney sweeps, for obvious reasons. Did this make it okay? (Hint: It was dangerous and lots of them died).
I'm not necessarily saying that we should stop this practice entirely, but as most people have noticed, the effects of fame and stardom on young children can tend to be quite traumatic and often leads to very serious problems such as drug and sex addictions, severe alienation and depression and even suicides. I don't believe this is a decision that children are capable of making, and it rarely is. This is more often than not a situation where parents are proverbially pimping out their own children in hopes of easy money (and in some cases it seems, quite literally).
As somewhat of a libertarian/conservative it seems odd to me that I'm sitting here asking for more restrictions on what people can and cannot do, however I'm not an anarchist and I do believe that government serves a purpose (see necessary evil) in many situations and at the very top of that pile I would consider the protection of children and the defence of the defenceless to be of the utmost importance.
Please help out by adding to the conversation or perhaps resteeming. I would really like to see this question forced in to the mainstream and the discussion to be had. Any suggestions, solutions anything. I'm not saying we are going to save all of the children of the world or if any of us are going to be able to change anything but if these conversations aren't being had then we can be certain that nothing is going to change.
Thanks for reading :)
I see your point. But you can't change the whole world. You have to make your part of it as right as possible. If those in Hollywood would do that also, it would be better.
I was watching an old episode of Beverly Hillbillies today. It was about Ellie Mae dating a movie star. But there was an up and coming actress that was unwilling to rehearse a kissing scene with Mr Drysdale until after she found out his Bank was funding the Studio. She didn't want to go out with Jethro until she was told his Uncle owned the Studio. Then she was happy to go out with him. So this has been in the open and seemingly accepted by people for a long time.
I believe in the Free Market, so in time, if enough people are like you get fed up and stop supporting them. They will stop. I have shifted most of my TV time to the Internet anyway. Hollywood gets very little of my money. In fact, they support the things I like on Youtube by paying to advertise their crappy movies.
I think the Hollywood elites who run the business hide behind feminism has a means to to satisfy their perversions. There is a lot of connections between politics and the media it seems everybody has each others back. Yet feminism has its own goals and a male dominated business doesn't look like female power. So I think all the power players and some of the stars will be thrown under the bus. The question is well the public forgive them, they certainly think so. As for pedophilia and homosexual harassment, notice how those stories don't get much traction. Getting rid of them is not part of their agenda.
I agree! The media will use the stories that they believe will help push their narrative yet continue to suppress stories which are just as, if not more important for the sake of protecting their own twisted agenda. It's nothing new I suppose I just don't understand how more people can't see through it. It seems they are starting to catch on but as far as I'm concerned, the fact that these fake news MSM propaganda machines still exist at all is an indictment on us as a society. As long as people are watching, they are making money and are enabled to continue. Solution to that - STOP WATCHING! Spread the word...
It's a shame this didn't kick up more discussion. I like the irony of the question posed.
For me it's like, many things, a good/bad balance. There are a lot of tales of child actors taking up drugs, falling apart, etc. However, there are also child actors who with a good supportive family did just fine. They're just not as interesting to talk about. There are also kids from every walk of life who end up addicts or falling apart. There are child entrepreneurs who became wealthy from making their own business; could that be classed as child labour? Where do we draw a line?
Oh and if you think the government are the best people to deal with protecting children, have a look at some of the stories @familyprotection. It makes you think.
You make some great points, especially as to whether the government is actually capable of even doing the job. I have no idea how or where the line would/should be drawn as far as children being able to enter the workforce.
How's this for an anecdote though? I was working, doing sound at a gig only 2 nights ago and there was a young kid who came up to my boss and I at the front of house and was just standing there watching for a while, so we started chatting to him and he told us that he owned his own sound and lighting company and had been running it for a year and was doing quite well. I let him have a go on the lighting console and he was really good at it! The guy was 13 years old and he was killing it! He clearly really enjoyed what he was doing and it was evident that this was something he himself genuinely wanted to pursue, to which I say "kudos kid!" If he keeps it up he will undoubtedly be one of the best in the biz in no time. I don't feel that there is anything wrong with that, in fact I think it's fantastic. But is there a way of finding this stuff out on a case by case basis? Should there be some kind of psychological analysis to find out whether the child themselves actually wants to do the work? Again, regardless of whether the child wants to do it at that time, are they actually emotionally mature enough to make that decision? In this specific situation that seemed to be the case but we can't see the future. This of course isn't really taking into account whether dance festivals are really an appropriate place for children to be anyways, but I guess if they are gonna be there at all, it's probably better that they are behind the desk working and not in the crowd getting wasted...Haha there are a lot of facets to this which is why I thought it would be a cool discussion to open up.
What a great anecdote! A whole can of worms isn't it?! We don't always want to take the time to delve into things on a case by case approach, so it's easier to try and make a box to put things in.
It was a fantastic discussion to open up, just a shame it didn't attract more attention.
Thank you for replying despite it being an old post.
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STOPHi falsefreedom,
GREAT POST! I resteemed, upvoted, following and sugested for @originalworks upvote! I agree with you. Morality is not restriction to people's freedoms! Its the ability to instinctually know right from wrong and protect our young! Please check out the post I just put up on the sexualizing of children at a recent Drag Queen Fest in Texas. Yikes!
Hi @dakini5d, sorry for the incredibly late response. I had a lot of assignments due at the time of posting and kind of ended up being off steemit for quite some time. I'm just about to head off for Christmas celebrations but hopefully I'll be back in a few days or sooner so I can check out the link you sent! Have a good Christmas and I'll hopefully talk to you soon :)
https://steemit.com/pizzagate/@dakini5d/texas-drag-queen-fest-promotes-child-attendance-and-participation-in-sexualized-performances