Writer/director Darryl Roberts talks about what led to the pervasive sexualization of children in the media, as portrayed in the new third installment of his documentary series America the Beautiful 3.
Roberts said his research found that the problem actually started in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan, when regulations were lifted that previously barred advertising targeted directly at youth and bypassing the parents.
“Once they were able to do that – with a child, once they get used to something you have to keep upping the ante – more and more and more – just to keep young people stimulated. We have gotten out of control because that Brooke Shields ad was very racy at the time it came out, but if you look at what’s racy now, you’ll see literally a shift in culture.”
He compares TV of the ‘60s and ‘70s to the racy primetime shows and proliferation of reality series filling the airwaves today. “The boundaries have been pushed so much, and you can’t go back. Because what people are used to, or what they find stimulating, you can’t go back to 30 years ago, it can only get worse.”
Roberts said another crucial piece of legislation that made the problem worse was changing the law to allow someone to play a minor onscreen as long as the actor was at least 18 years old in real life. The law came about around the same time as the release of the sexually explicit 1999 film American Beauty, which used several older actresses to play teenagers.
He points out that in additional to traditional Hollywood, the porn industry also took advantage of the law and used legally adult actresses to play girls as young as 13 or 14 years old. “The problem with that is when you have grown men watching porn – and they don’t know how old these girls are – and what they think is a 14-year-old, it gave rise to pedophilia. And they say Johns on the street are now looking for teenagers to pick up.”
Watch the full episode to also hear Roberts outline the dangers of putting young girls into beauty pageants and recall his personal encounter with the head of one of the porn businesses biggest companies, Vivid Entertainment.
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