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C4 "Girls and Boys Alone" documentary

94 replies

Podrick · 03/02/2009 16:39

There is a boys house and a girls house with primary age kids left to live without adults...quite a lot of bullying goes on apparently with no intervention...sounds exploitative to me but I will be interested to watch! C4 at 9pm tonight

OP posts:
strawberrycornetto · 04/02/2009 00:44

I found it quite shocking. I would be interested to know how the children were selected. I'd also like to know what possessed the parents to think this would be a good idea for their children. The little girl who had been bullied on school was placed in an enviroment where there was a huge risk she'd be bullied on tv for all her real life class mates to see. I also feel sorry for the older girls who were portrayed as bullies. They are still so young but something like this could really damage their reputations and the stigma could follow them through school.

I am really surprised this kind of thing is permitted. As Sifinerd said, this is experimenting on children, or it is exploiting them for tv.

jasper · 04/02/2009 00:49

what possessed the parents?
Indeed

IamLeticiaDean · 04/02/2009 07:59

I went to bed feeling very uncomfortable after watching most of this. It's been said on here but why on earth would you put your children through this? Was shocked by Sid's mum's attitude: 'you have to learn to stand on your own two feet sometime', surely this is something you learn within the home/family/friends/school not on a TV documentary.

christywhisty · 04/02/2009 08:22

Wonder how many of the children were on agency books, before they were on this?

IamLeticiaDean · 04/02/2009 08:26

Is that how it happens? They are all wannabes? I have complained to Ofcom as I believe it does not comply with the duty of care towards children.

sarah293 · 04/02/2009 08:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

alicecrail · 04/02/2009 08:56

I saw the adverts for it and thought it could be quite amusing, but like leticiaDean i felt a bit uncomfortable afterwards. I think it was worrying seeing the boys fight but even more worrying was how the girls were so tenacious! They just would not let up! I also wonder how much had been cut and edited to make it look like it did

CherryChoc · 04/02/2009 10:55

It should be on channel 4 catch up on their website Riven.

basementbear · 04/02/2009 12:48

I watched it because there had been something similar done a few years back - but all were 11 year olds I think. They were a lot better prepared too, had all been given cooking lessons beforehand etc. I couldn't believe poor Sid couldn't even boil a kettle - nothing particularly wrong with that in the real world but if your kid was going into that sort of experience surely you would have taught him the basics yourself?? I thought it was really irresponsible putting children as young as 8 in the show - agree with LeticiaDean, made me very uncomfortable.

smallorange · 04/02/2009 12:53

Anyway good to see channel 4 are trailing an actual fight betwen two of the boys for our entertainment next week! Keep it up channel 4 you're doing a great job!

llynnnn · 04/02/2009 13:14

was so shocked watching this, reminded me a lot of how the girls behaved when i was 10/11 with their bullying and general nastiness to each other. i have a dd who is 2 and another dd on the way and it makes me worry that they will have to cope with all this bullyng behaviour from other girls. i hope i can teach them how to cope with it all.

was also shocked that when the mums went in all they did was clean up for the boys, they couldve spent that time talking to them and showing them how to work the kettle etc, surely!! wouldve been much more useful!!

smallorange · 04/02/2009 13:25

I think it's just a reality TV show dressed up as 'science.' It's a junior Big Brother the only difference being that the children had absoloutely no idea what they were getting themselves into. It is unethical and exploitative. The children will have learned nothing from the experience except some better swear words. There is no attempt to sit with the children and analyse their behaviour, ask them how they might have handled a situation better, asked them to empathise with the other kids.
It is totally bogus too as there ARE adults there filming the action and as these children are used to adults setting boundaries I'm sure they were testing the camera crew and chaperones to see when they would intervene.
The kids know this is a reality TV situation, they know they aren't really in charge, they know the cameras are there, so they will behave as badly as the adults they have seen on X Factor or Big Brother.
CHrist I must be getting old....

melisssa · 04/02/2009 16:12

I found this show really interesting and it has mad me evaluate how many lifeskills I am actually teaching ds. I would love to see what my ds would be like in this situation - it is rare to really see what your child is like when you are not around.
will atch next week.

Wallace · 04/02/2009 16:25

None of you evr gone to pony camp?

alicecrail · 04/02/2009 17:00

Haha Wallace I was just thinking this afternoon how much like pony club it was!! Which branch were you?

liath · 04/02/2009 17:02

I got thrown out of pony club camp for smuggling in alcohol, wallace .

I thought it was interesting & certainly makes you think about parents tending to act like servants to their children & doing everything for them. Was shocked how many of the kids were really overwieght.

ahundredtimes · 04/02/2009 17:08

I watched a bit and then turned it off. I thought it was nasty and exploitative.

Everyone on that show too young to be subjected to the nations gaze, whether they be nice or nasty.

Toxic idea.

TheCrackFox · 04/02/2009 17:32

I didn't watch because, let's face it, the results would be fairly predictable. Chaos and homesickness.

What kind of parent allows their children to be exploited like this?

Has Channel 4 just given up? Full of dross reality TV.

mollyroger · 04/02/2009 17:43

Watching the trailer last night, I was overwhelmed with sadness and a sense of bewilderment why any parent would put their child through this? I'm sure there are some 'highs' for the young participants, but more probably many many more lows - especially for the boys - many of whom will be inadequately socially prepapred for it all.
How long are they suppose dto be trapped in there for?

Hideous, hideous hideous!

KERALA1 · 04/02/2009 18:35

It was obvious that some smart, articulate and persuasive producer had persuaded the parents that that taking part would somehow help the children learn lifeskills/be character building or somesuch and they were gullible/stupid enough to believe it.

Putting your wish to be on telly over your child's happiness was despicable. Sids "mum" (not very motherly imo) was a dreadful woman. He was calmly and clearly saying he didnt want to stay and she was ignoring him. I went to bed depressed at the parents rather than the children who were just being children. All the handwringing that they couldnt cook - they were 8 fgs!

mrsmaidamess · 04/02/2009 18:47

God this programme mad me sad.

Sad for those little boys! Hanging onto their Mums as they left. It made me think how my ds, just a smidge off 8 ,would cope in a horrible environment like that, with kids he didn't know, in a strange house, no food. It broke my heart!

Can you imagine watching your child sobbing because they miss their family, and YOU'VE put them in that situation.

Having said that, after telling my ds about it over breakfast , I made him butter his own toast and load the dishwasher 'Like he was in avillage with no grown ups'
...well, if it gets the job done

Wallace · 04/02/2009 21:06

Only went to pony camps when we lived in Africa, but glad to hear it was the same everywhere

IIRC we were left pretty much to our own devices

saintmaybe · 04/02/2009 21:35

Why are you watching this? How is it different from those cases of adults getting kids to smoke or fight and filming it on their phones?

If they can't sell it, they won't make it. Like other exploitative material, by watching it you're providing a market and and you are partly responsible.

jasper · 04/02/2009 23:05

I used to go to church camps at that age - left to our own devices a lot (tho not expected to feed ourselves).

Also a school camp in p7 with a lot of unsupervised high jinks.

Nothing remotely nasty ever happened.

we were nice kids that just got on and had fun/made friends.

MamaG · 06/02/2009 12:15

I had sky plussed it and started to watch today. Turned it off and won't be watching the rest.

Very upsetting, unecessary. I couldn't watch my child go through some of the stuff theirs did.

Life skills my farking arse.