Why is it OK to abuse kids on Fear Factor?

I keep seeing these commercials for Family Fear Factor and am nothing short of appalled. It features a fresh faced middle schooler sitting in a plexiglass box, scared out of his mind, having bugs poured over him. Why is this OK? It is one thing for adults to be doing this kind of thing, but kids?

There's a real sadistic streak in our society, isn't there?

By the way, I stopped watching TV months ago and feel mich saner for it.

you should tune back in long enough to find the sponsers and tell them to knock it the fuck off.

These kids are all American, cute kids, and the whole point seems to be to see them squirm. It is almost like kiddie porn with fear as the hook.

Ever see those kiddie pagents (Jon Benet Ramsey)?

but those were bush league in comparison to the Jon Bennet thing. Even my sister's thing was sort of creepy. I am kind of glad she lost the finals of the Ms Peanut and decided to do no more of those.

we will have to live with the results of this crap. find the sponsors and tell them to knock it the fuck off.

but since I didn't I don't know the sponsers.

know the reason is another example of desensitization.

If I worked for child protection services I would be outraged. I saw the previews.

It is sick, disgusting, and I cannot believe anyone would watch that shit.

I won't watch the episode but I like a lot of NBC shows so I have seen the commercial repeatedly. It seems to run every half hour or so.

watch it and find the sponsers and tell them to knock it the fuck off.
we talk about political boycotts and write letters all the time. what about a little societal boycott. if we keep our mouths shut, it will only get worse.

consent.

I honestly don't care. But the kids are a very different story. It should be noted that they won't have any control over any of the money they earn, due to their tender age. They are mot permitted to make a whole host of decisions due to their tender age. Yet, they are allowed to do this? That makes no real sense.

I call it trash tv.

Seriously?

And the fear is an act. All of their stunts involve no danger.

Hint: It's TV (shhhhh. don't tell anybody else)

Abuse? What abuse?

but that doesn't negate fear. I defy you to watch the commercial and tell me the blond boy isn't scared out of his mind.

On edit When I visited the St Louis Arch I wasn't in danger of falling but I was scared out of my mind on that little elevator thing they have.

amd the boy was not scared out of his mind. I'm guessing you didn't see the end of that commercial, where the boy says something like "That's was incredible!!"

When I visited the St Louis Arch I wasn't in danger of falling but I was scared out of my mind on that little elevator thing they have.

And here in NYC, people pay good money to have that done to them on The Cyclone in Coney Island.

who said it was incredible (I think he used awesome). The blond was scared out of his mind.

Kids love that.

Last weekend, I swung my 7 year old niece around my head by her legs. She screamed and screamed.

And when I stopped, she asked to do it again.

I think there is a massive difference between things like roller coasters etc being done in private and on national TV. If the kid had wimped out can you imagine what he next day at school would be like?

? What if you had pimped your neices fear for money on a national TV show?

looked scared out of her mind.

I watched, goddess help me. But I couldn't help
thinking it was disgusting to do that to those kids.

The children know that they can stop at any time, and they know that they are in no way forced to do anything that is presented as a challenge.

And sometimes the harm is deep but invisible from the outside.

The reason we have laws about child abuse & neglect -- and the reason they should be used -- is because there are some parents who are (1) malicious, (2) self-centered (the kid is only their for the adult's ego-gratification), and/or (3) willfully, criminally, stupid.

Putting an underage child on shows like Fear Factor is just begging for a visit from the Sherriff and the Child Protective Services. Beginning with the set, the parent's home, and last but not least the producer's office.

The only question I have is: Why haven't the cops been there yet?

Hekate
who wishes she'd been there to protect Persephone

scares me, frankly. edited

Imagine if you did this to your own child, and it was not on TV? Suppose you poured bugs over your child to frighten him? Suppose you then posted videos of that on the internet? Remind you of anything?

or even if you took pictures and had them seveloped commercially. some walmart tech would blow the whistle on you.

why is it okay to do this on TV when no one would get away with it privately. for all you people saying there is nothing wrong with it, tell me why?

How much of a choice do some of these kids have, if their parents are willing to go to any lengths to get on tv and win money? If they're willing to exploit their kids in such a manor, then I do think it is abuse. If I want to go on tv, make a fool of myself, and subject myself to horror and revulsion for money and publicity, that is one thing, but I would never dream of even asking my kids to do so, and I certainly would never allow it. It's tv at its lowest and vilest form.

parents are psychologically browbeating or even physically beating them behind the scenes? (You may remember that Tonya Harding's mother beat her with a hairbrush when she didn't want to skate.)

The "stage parent" is an old phenomenon. If there are adults who will do anything stupid, dangerous, or humiliating, just to see their fool faces on TV, it is not beyond imagination that they should force the same on their children.

most kids would do it anyway to please their parents, even if they felt scared and humiliated.

Sick.

I think it's a terrible premise for a show. If adults want to participate in that kind of crap, it's one thing but to have kids doing it is awful.

I could barely stand to watch the commercials for the original Fear Factor and I literally get sick to my stomach when I see the one's with kiddos involved.

Imagine the crap these kids get when they get home after losing. Every-time these kids get driven to school in their Pinto the parents can blame the kid for not having a Lexus. Family Double Dare was a good example of how this type of thing should be done, if done at all.

http://www.loogslair.com/gameshow/rules/ddnick.html

There would be a difference. Older kids would have more likely urged the parents to play that sick and silly TV game than the other way around.

No kid under 12 or so should have been allowed anywhere the set though.

It was on Monday. I saw only bits and pieces because I thought it was ghastly. Children trashtalking the other team along with their parents. What was particularly bad is that if a child was frightened and initially said no to the stunt, after watching the other participants go through with it, you could feel how they were 'forced' to go through with it. The father/son team showed the most pathology followed by the mother/daughter then mother/son.