Major Trigger Warnings: Talks of pedophilia, young pregnancy, sexual abuse towards minors, and manipulation.
Quiet on Set is a documentary recently made to bring attention to the many child actors that faced horrible abuse from producers or directors while working in shows, movies, or other content. Unfortunately, the victims, all now adults in their 30s, are only now able to voice the terrible experiences when working on the sets of Nickelodeon.
The documentary has demonstrated the clear lack of protection child actors from the late 1990s to the early 2000s dealt with along with the constant exploitation they faced on multiple forms of social media. They continuously faced unhealthy work hours, financial abuse, and even sexual abuse from predators in some cases. Many were forced into many uncomfortable situations while filming or even having inappropriate humor in their television shows that most children would be oblivious to.
In the documentary, three convicted sex offenders, while working on Nickelodeon, were spotlighted: Brian Peck, Jason Handy, and Ezel Channel.
Peck, possibly the most recognizable of the ton, was convicted for sexual abuse against Drake Bell, a child star in the series Drake and Josh. Although he was in court for the sexual abuse of a child, his position of power gained him support from many people in the industry who would write him letters of motivation. Handy is a production assistant who was caught emailing nude photos of himself to the young actors he would work with during The Amanda Show.
Recently, there have been (rumored) tweets made by Amanda Bynes’ possibly secret account about having an abortion at thirteen from sexual abuse during production of this show. Handy is now arrested due to being found with an enormous trove of illegal images of children. Finally, Channel was a freelance animator, charged with serving 16 months in prison for preying on a child under the age of 14 and then was sentenced with 6 more years for violating that conviction once again.
The majority of those receiving recognition on Quiet on Set were actors in California, which unfortunately, has no consistent laws protecting the safety of any minors when working in the entertainment industries. There has only been one important law made towards the protections of child stars-The Coogan Law. This law protects the money the child actors make, which was made due to the case of Jackie Coogan that successfully sued his own family for removing the money he earned from his possession and spending it for their own gain. Even with these laws being place, including child labor laws, Nickelodeon shows were consistently violating them and would fail to protect children from the predators being allowed to work on set.
There have been numerous accusations in the child actor industry being made recently, beginning with this documentary to accusations being made online. The newly voiced stories and tragedies give us an insight to the awful environment multiple of our favorite child stars went through when creating the very memorable series and films many of us grow up watching. Our film industry systems for child actors have failed them all and have caused them relentless pain throughout the years without any help. Hopefully, there will be a huge change in our industries to avoid similar horrors and prevent them from continuing.
About the Contributor
Vanessa Santoyo
Vanessa Santoyo, Staff Writer
Vanessa Santoyo is a long-term student at Fontana High School, working on making perfect attendance while miserably failing. Even while slowly going insane, you can always count on her to make a situation more awkward than it needs to be. Although her friends love her dearly, no matter how nice, she will always cause some friendly conflict between you both. She loves to rant when she is comfortable, so be prepared to get your eardrums ruptured and your eyes to grow sore.
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