Child abuse: Child actors

[Rebiu]

In this country we have laws to restrict child labor. These laws do not seem to apply to child actors. I find this practice unethical and unmoral. Many child actors end up severely damaged by the industry and by the parents that push them into this endeavor.

[InfiniteNow]

And some of them wind up rich beyond their wildest avarice... Not all of them become socially inept and damaged. That's a generalization. The problem is more with the parents than it is with the industry.

[Rebiu]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

And some of them wind up rich beyond their wildest avarice... Not all of them become socially inept and damaged. That's a generalization. The problem is more with the parents than it is with the industry.

Does the fact that a few of them are successful justify the negatives? I do not think so. Do you agree with child labor laws in general and make an exception for this kind of labor or do you think all children should be allowed to work?

[InfiniteNow]

Does the fact that a few of them wind up "damaged" (to use your term) justify preventing all of them from doing it? Your logic above would indicate no.

Child labor laws really weren't passed until the Great Depression, when availability of jobs was so low that many adults were starving. The bill designed to prevent child labor had repeatedly been rejected, and only found passage under the presumption that it would stimulate the economy by making more jobs available for out of work adults.

Your tone implies that a child working is like shooting them up full of heroine. I disagree. Just because we are no longer a large farming economy doesn't mean that children actors are indicative of a coming apocalypse.

[Buffy]

First off, I'll point out the overarching issue of trying to make a mountain out of a molehill in all of these threads you're creating. It is classic trolling, and its sadly viewed as a fairly transparent one at that. Be careful.

I have friends who were child actors and the vast majority really loved it. I saw some go the Dana Plato route, but quite frankly in no greater numbers than the general population, and almost always with parents or personalities or physical traits that would have been led them to go bad even if the kid wasn't an actor.

Where I could see problems all go back to how the parents dealt with it. Parents have a huge influence: If you stop being a parent--either because you put the kid on a pedestal or start viewing her as simply a job--you're going to be in trouble. I had my kid do modeling when she was a baby, and she's extremely proud of her poster in her room that was in every BabyGap in the world, but some of the parents I ran into doing that *are* completely psychotic, and it can be ugly at times. But these parents would have pushed them too hard in anything, and its the parent's fault (and even with sick parents, a lot of these kids turn out just fine). Eliminating the option because of a few bad apples is really silly.

No laws? You're joking! The restrictions on child actors--which are more a function of SAG and AFTRA rules than the laws which are indeed strict--drive producers up the walls. If movies with kids didn't make so much money, it would not be worth the extended shooting schedules required by the maximum work hours allowed. They are required to have private tutors (who are far better than anything you'll find in schools), and usually movies and shows do *not* have just one child, so there's plenty of opportunity for social interaction, and because they're having to actually work, the ones I've known are far more polite and socially functional than almost anyone.

Premise flawed, logic flawed, conclusion false.

I like my men at my feet,
Buffy

[Rebiu]

Thank you for that very informative and intersesting post.