ANT AND DEC AND CHILD SAFETY ISSUES

Ant and Dec's 'Saturday Night Take Away' threatened, last night, to take away the carefully laid child protection messages abroad presently in society.

First, we had multiple images of little Ant and Dec bring physically familiar with their adult counterparts and the affection being reciprocated. This included the touching of thighs and the children being sat on their knees and between adult legs.

Second, we had a distasteful set of questions about adult Ant and Decs' personal habits, including singing on the toilet, lying to a girlfriend and even more concerning, playing with his 'sausage dog', a deliberate double entendre that Dec continued, referring to his 'sausage'.

The show went into melt down when little Dec had said Dec liked to play with Ant and then pointed to Ant's genital area.

At this point Dec playfully covered little Dec's mouth, at which he resisted and an unacceptable scene of child restraint began, with the camera panning away from the incident rapidly until little Dec could be 'brought back to order'.

The visual and experiential messages being broadcast were detrimental to child safety.

It is not appropriate, in today's world, for children to be physically affectionate to adult figures that are not part of their family, and even then it should be limited and handled appropriately by the adults concerned.

It is not appropriate for children to be exposed directly to double entendre culture that is often peddled in such programmes, nor the adulatory vicarious celebrity status afforded to little Ant and Dec,  that intrudes upon their childhood innocence, their schooling and their life expectations.

Added to this, the apparent lauding and actual rewarding of theft and deception in the Judge Rinder section, raises serious questions about the social and moral responsibility the broadcasters bear, in ensuring family viewing remains edifying and wholesome.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/21/outraged-viewers-slam-ant-and-decs-saturday-night-takeaway-for-rewarding-lying-and-stealing-in-judge-rinder-segment-5115068/