U.K. TV Show Slammed for Child Abuse
Britain's Channel 4 criticized for airing real-life "Lord of the Flies" show.
LONDON, Feb. 4, 2009 — -- If it's not allegations of harassment of veteran British actors, or accusations of racist bullying of Bollywood actresses, it's the purported abuse of children in a reality TV show that has British television viewers and commentators upset.
Britain's Channel 4 Tuesday night aired the first episode of a television show, "Boys and Girls Alone," in which 10 boys and 10 girls, ages 8 to 11, are taken away from their parents and housed in cottages in two villages, separated by gender.
According to a statement on the show's Web site, the children "are given the chance to experience life without adults ... they decide everything about how they live, what they do, what they eat, when they get up, whether they clean and wash and how they organize and entertain themselves."
But this effort at "playing house" has already drawn comparisons to the controversial Channel 4 hit, "Big Brother" and to the celebrated William Golding novel, "Lord of the Flies."
Preview clips of the show feature children crying, begging to go home, squabbling with each other, bullying each other and, most worryingly of all, attacking each other with knives.
In an interview with ABCNews.com, Andrew Hibberd, founding director of The Parent Organization, described the program as "voyeuristic, low-grade television."
"Children need discipline, they need guidance," he said. "Without that, they will degenerate."
Calling the show "an absolutely worthless program," he expressed his concerns that some of the children involved in the show when it was filmed last year will face problems at school now that it has begun airing.
"If any of the boys in the program is shown crying or bullying other children, he will be bullied at school, because other students will think he's either a crybaby or big-headed," Hibberd said.
A Channel 4 spokesman told ABCNews.com that the filming was carried out with full consent from the parents, and that a clinical psychologist was always present to see to the children's welfare.
