A Detailed Look At “The Family Sex Show”

[Sazzasez]

Just for clarity & in case anyone jumps at the chance to call me a right-winger bent on denying women reproductive rights: I’m a socialist agnostic who has protested anti-abortionists.

And I know a child safeguarding hazard when I see one.

Performances planned in Bath, Bristol and Norwich.

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/nope?s=r

CitizenGO (where Caroline Farrow, who is a director and has had support from JKR) have a petition on their website too with 35,000 signatures.

@AlisonDonut

I think the question is, why have many people bought these people in at all?

Why? I don't get it. Surely there is a safeguarding lead in post at these places?

Where has safeguarding disappeared to all of a sudden?

We're about to start up with outdoor sports training for adults who coach children for various organisations (clubs, leagues, Scouts, Girl Guides, Brownies etc.).

Even this indirectly, safeguarding is a substantial part of the paperwork because it involves training on facilities that sometimes have camps for the children.

There are safeguarding leads, policies, contingencies, complicated arrangements about who can use which facilities depending on age-groups.

I find it astonishing that no safeguarding leads or organisations are involved in this theatre production or via the Arts Council.

Well they tried to pretend they somehow had links to the NSPCC. I wrote to the NSPCC myself and they had no previous knowledge of the show (obviously they do now). Do theatres have safeguarding arrangements and people in safeguarding roles? Does the Arts Council? I don't know the answers...

Trying to answer my own question I found this

learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection/for-performing-arts

I have signed the petitions, but will also repeat what I have said on another thread, this is not just about this production, behind this is the steady grooming of society to accept and then to favour the sexualisation of children. Guess who gains from that?

@theDudesmummy

The whole slogan Speak Out Stay Safe is so wrong. So these who do not stay safe are to blame because they did not/could not speak out?

Good point

[quote Sazzasez]@PurgatoryOfPotholes

Yeah the first part of that sounded ok: 11-13 year olds: sensible age (certainly better than five +); child-led in that they get to ask the questions and decide what they want to know... But as I read. I was thinking “so what do the adults get out of it?”
And then I read the second part.[/quote]
Yep, that's the key.

It turns out that people with a sexual interest in children seek out such initiatives to exploit them for their own ends. We saw it with the Danish nudity show, so why won't it happen with the Family Sex Show which seems to offer more for predators to exploit?

We saw it with the Danish nudity show

Links in this post for anyone who doesn't know about the Danish TV shows.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4282164-Anyone-remember-that-Danish-TV-show-pairing-children-with-naked-adults?msgid=108577902

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4282164-Anyone-remember-that-Danish-TV-show-pairing-children-with-naked-adults

I've had a look at the NSPCC - this is the body that should deal with these kind of concerns, isn't it?

I think it comes under:

www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/away-from-home/sports-clubs-activities/

Their reporting form is unavailable.

One can email the theatre company to ask about their safeguarding policy, who their welfare officer is, etc.

Is the problem partly that this seems like ... sort of 'meta' grooming. It's not necessarily that children are at risk of abuse during the show or workshops, it's more that it's undermining boundaries and consent so may damage safeguarding subsequently.

I am (clearly) no expert on the subject, but that's what it seems like to me. It's teaching children unhealthy and potentially risky mindsets/ideas.

I can't decide which infuriates me most.
The fact this show ever got off the ground or the frankly nauseating lack of response from the NSPCC who have been a liability for literally years now.
What a world we are in

www.gov.uk/report-unfit-work-children-vulnerable-adults

Should the organisation be reported as unfit to work with children?

'Parents or members of the public who are concerned about someone working with children or vulnerable adults should contact the police, social services or the person’s employer.'

I did make a report to the NSPC, several days ago. Their response was to thank me for bringing it their attention, to say they had not heard about it and had not been consulted about it, and that there were "not aware" of what the content was. That was pretty much it.

If people start protesting publicly or picketing the show, these people are just going to get the attention they want.
Just let it die, because it will.

Sorry. I disagree. Things that have been ‘ignored’ in the past just keep coming back again and again. Each time crossing more boundaries.

And if every group in society push back the message will be a universal ‘this is not appropriate for children’

Could someone in one of the towns where the show is supposed be on make a report to SS?

I don't think ignoring this will mean it dies a death, either.

I also think the only way the NSPCC and co is going to change is if they're embarrassed I to it. Sadly this problem requires a national newspaper investigation and exposé. Emailing and being nice and so on, does not work.

Has anyone actually seen this show? I'm not in the area, and I"m not a safeguarding expert (I tach undergrads, so safeguarding issues are different ) but it would be interesting to hear responses to the show from those of you expert in safeguarding &development of children of the age bracket the show is designed for.

I am really conflicted about this - I abhor censorship, and particularly the kind of "Mary Whitehouse" knee jerk response to theatre that's open about sex. And that no-one has seen. I guess I was brought up as a bit of an old 1970s hippy/liberal about these things. Although never, ever pro-porn (which is basically commercialised rape).

But there are elements of the show, as it's advertised & talked about, that do seem quite at odds with the care we now try to take over children's bodies, minds, and their appropriate sexual development.

Any reports from audiences?

No @ExMachinaDeus because it hasn’t started yet.

Don’t feel like you’re having to persuade yourself to think it’s acceptable to teach five year olds about masturbation while letting men from Twitter strip off in front of them, in order not to look like Mary Whitehouse. The two are poles apart and there’s plenty of decent, sensible middle areas between them.

@ExMachinaDeus

Has anyone actually seen this show? I'm not in the area, and I"m not a safeguarding expert (I tach undergrads, so safeguarding issues are different ) but it would be interesting to hear responses to the show from those of you expert in safeguarding &development of children of the age bracket the show is designed for.

I am really conflicted about this - I abhor censorship, and particularly the kind of "Mary Whitehouse" knee jerk response to theatre that's open about sex. And that no-one has seen. I guess I was brought up as a bit of an old 1970s hippy/liberal about these things. Although never, ever pro-porn (which is basically commercialised rape).

But there are elements of the show, as it's advertised & talked about, that do seem quite at odds with the care we now try to take over children's bodies, minds, and their appropriate sexual development.

Any reports from audiences?

It hasn’t opened yet

@Organictangerine

No *@ExMachinaDeus* because it hasn’t started yet.

Don’t feel like you’re having to persuade yourself to think it’s acceptable to teach five year olds about masturbation while letting men from Twitter strip off in front of them, in order not to look like Mary Whitehouse. The two are poles apart and there’s plenty of decent, sensible middle areas between them.

Quite

Thanks @Organictangerine for putting it like that - you're right, there is a middle ground, and I suppose our language needs to reflect that. Otherwise, it's too easily used against us.

I'm just a veteran of right-wing attempts to ban stuff before it's even been seen, and I'm a bit nervous of that. And was sort-of brought up on The Little Red School Book - bought for us by my mother, when they tried to ban it (does anyone remember that?)

Happy to contribute towards the price of a couple of tickets for people to see the show & report back ...

The NSPCC really needs someone to take a closer look at them. Their hand waving away of this and asking others to contact the theatres suggests they're not taking seriously their core role - that of safeguarding children.
And it seems that the theatres are doubling down and celebrating this opportunity for adults to be naked in front of other people's little children - not that the citizens of Bristol are impressed with the commentators identifying precisely what an opportunity this is to groom children by eroding their boundaries:

www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/bristol-theatre-defends-naked-family-6935646

@Organictangerine

No *@ExMachinaDeus* because it hasn’t started yet.

Don’t feel like you’re having to persuade yourself to think it’s acceptable to teach five year olds about masturbation while letting men from Twitter strip off in front of them, in order not to look like Mary Whitehouse. The two are poles apart and there’s plenty of decent, sensible middle areas between them.

Also, from what they have designed to tell us, it couldn't be right that children see this show and then it's proof they've been harmed. Preventing child abuse must be the aim, not acting after the fact. If it walks like a duck etc

*deigned to tell us

abhor censorship, and particularly the kind of "Mary Whitehouse" knee jerk response to theatre that's open about sex.

There have been some interesting threads about Whitehouse recently. On some issues, she was absolutely correct, and she put up with threats and smears that would terrify many.