Ear piercing without consent at Meadowhall in Sheffield (might be triggering)

[PoetryLaser]

I'm amazed that I can't find another thread on this – and I know I'm not being unreasonable to find this video incredibly upsetting. Poor child, perhaps six or seven being pinned to the floor while having her ears pierced in a jewellery store at the Meadowhall in Sheffield, screaming her head off saying "no no no".
Should ear piercing be banned for say under 12s, until they're old enough to consent?
Warning - the video is very distressing to watch: twitter.com/mrscjos/status/1450020437744885761?s=10

I can’t believe the shop agreed to do it 😕

Is one of the people holding her down a parent or guardian?

I can see much written about who was with her, if anyone

@DueyCheatemAndHow

Absolutely shocking. We need to be braver to intervene and get rid of this 'other people's children' nonsense.

I agree, but I can understand in the moment why someone might feel that you can't walk up to a parent and tell them to unhand the kid. There's 4 adults complicit in the abuse in public, it takes a strong person to feel they can do anything but make it worse by pissing the parents off and upsetting the child worse.

But it should absolutely be treated as abuse

which is that the staff were clearly ill trained

This isn't a training issue, unless you want the training to include a section called 'don't be a cunt'

I've watched the video. The little girl is clearly hugely distressed, but it wouldn't necessarily be clear to passers-by what was going on. Happy to see the police is now involved, hopefully social services too. Those women should definitely be prosecuted in my opinion!

That is horrific!!!! I hope something comes of this.
My daughter had hers done at five years old. She asked to have them done, sat down and was cooperative. If at any point she said she didn't want them done then that would have been the end.

I suspect that the staff would welcome such a law too because it must affect them too.

Surely this isn't legal? It's a purely cosmetic procedure and the child isn't consenting? I assume that jabbing someone with a needle against their will is assault and I don't see why this would be different - while parents can consent on their child's behalf to medical procedures this isn't one.

I also find it unbelievable that anyone would do this - I found it quite hard enough holding my child for her immunisations. I did that because it was necessary. I can't imagine pinning down my distressed child for an unnecessary procedure.

@Notsurewheretogo

Is one of the people holding her down a parent or guardian?

I can see much written about who was with her, if anyone

Her mother and grandmother.. both of whom are restraining her.

@endofagain

Who filmed it?

According to a reply on Twitter a 14 year old girl

I can't bring myself to watch - has it been reported?

Yes, ear piercing should be banned until at v earliest 12 or 13, I'd prefer same age as tattooing and other body mods, tho.

the staff were clearly ill trained you don't need training to understand consent.

@girlmom21

which is that the staff were clearly ill trained

This isn't a training issue, unless you want the training to include a section called 'don't be a cunt'

But obviously there should be a policy stating staff should never pierce a child’s ears if they are distressed. And they should be trained on how to explain to parents that they are not able to do so.

All those involved, family and shop workers should be prosecuted.

Agree. How would they like to be pinned down and have a hole made in their body involuntarily. You'd 100% be prosecuted if you did this to an adult, why should it be different for a child.

Agree @Kanaloa I imagine the staff really didn't want to do it

When I first saw it I thought maybe they were taking out earings after the how many weeks they stay in, but you can see the gun and hear, "That's that one done".

From the webpage of Lovisa We’ve done everything possible to make sure you feel welcome and comfortable with the procedure when you visit our Piercing stores. We’ll take the time to understand what you are looking for and after the piercing go through the correct aftercare procedures.

www.lovisa.co.uk/pages/ear-piercing

And it’s easy to say you don’t need training but clearly there is a policy or training issue if this is how staff carry out their business.

It’s easy to say nobody should pierce their children’s ears until 12/13 but realistically that just isn’t going to happen. Places like Claire’s aren’t going to suddenly stop piercing ears. It would be much more beneficial to appeal for realistic policy changes to protect children from incidents like this.

I really think the shopping centre itself needs to make a public statement about this very quickly and agree a rule about not piercing distressed children’s ears. It’s just not good enough to let this circulate without addressing it head on.

I had this done in the 90s, age 7 or 8, I think. Had the first ear pierced, screamed, ran out of the shop. Dad had to chase after me, drag me back and hold me in the chair to get the other one done. It was at a hairdressers/beauty salon and that was a gun piercing.

I imagine it's more common than we like to think. I would hope the piercers are charged with assault.

I’ve seen this, absolutely disgusting and I’m amazed the staff continued when the girl got distressed.

I’m not shocked. I know this wasn’t Claire’s but Ive seen distressed children being held very firmly by parents whilst screaming in Claire’s whilst it’s been done. The difference is the children are just usually younger so don’t have the strength to need completely pinning down, but still it’s wrong. At least she looks ‘pretty’ now. Angry 😡 Fucking abusive wankers. I hope the child takes the earrings out and that all people involved have to answer for this.

@Bagelsandbrie

I really think the shopping centre itself needs to make a public statement about this very quickly and agree a rule about not piercing distressed children’s ears. It’s just not good enough to let this circulate without addressing it head on.

They say they are talking to the store and police on Twitter, imagine they will develop a policy on the back of this but really it's the store at fault.

The BBC is reporting that it was at a shop called Lovisa in the out-of-town Meadowhall shopping centre near Sheffield/Rotherham in South Yorkshire. I hope the shop is boycotted and faces action because for staff or owners to carry out a totally unnecessary and invasive procedure on an extremely distressed, non-consenting, physically restrained child is - it seems to me - a criminal assault by them and by the adult/s with the child.

I had this done in the 90s, age 7 or 8, I think. Had the first ear pierced, screamed, ran out of the shop. Dad had to chase after me, drag me back and hold me in the chair to get the other one done.

He didn't have to do that at all though

This is abuse. My daughter wanted hers done but I said to wait until she was 10 and gave her all the information that it would hurt a bit etc she still wanted them done and all was fine.
THIS is far from fine! I can't believe the staff even went through with it.

You'd have thought the staff would have had training on consent?

A nurse refused to take blood from dd when she was about 14yo as dd was crying so much and scared of the needle.....and that was when she was really poorly and really needed that blood test! Took another 2 years of illness until they finally got blood out of her for a diagnosis. So even when kids are really sick they won't do stuff without consent.