Eight-year-old Akshat Singh, a contestant on reality show 'India's Got Talent', does backflips and full splits. He breakdances to popular Hindi songs and has the audience and judges in splits with his age-inappropriate facial expressions mimicking stars that originally featured in the number.
Make no mistake. Akshat is a fantastic dancer. But as the world shifts online for its daily fix of news, children become the most vulnerable targets of the worst kinds of ridicule. Encouraged and often persuaded by ambitious parents to show off their talent on public platforms, children unknowingly open themselves to bilious personal attacks.
It will be safe to assume that some of the negative online feedback will slip past safety filters and reach their intended targets. Complete screening is impossible in the age of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram - even eavesdropped dinner conversation.
Take this YouTube video as an example. The video that has a blatantly offensive header - 'Fat Indian Kid Dance' - has been viewed over 500,000 times. User Tejas Patel tells the administrator to change the title, to which another, Drew Benne, responds "It's funny cause he's fat".
On Twitter, users again described Akshat as a 'demon kid', 'scandalous dancing kid' and 'Little Fat Indian Kid'. But can you blame nameless eggheads on the social networking site when the panel of judges who should know better, don't?
"Aapki is size aur shape mein jo aap split kartey ho...I'm in shock, this agility for this weight..." gushes filmmaker Karan Johar.
"Aapne humey full paisa wasool entertainment diya hai," says actress Malaika Arora Khan.
The offensive comments do not register either with the boy's parents or with any of the audience members. It does not occur to any of these veterans of showbiz that those are truly disturbing things to say to an 8-year-old.
Children have enough to cope with already without being objectified on national television and given body image issues growing up.
Can children handle the intense pressure of being constantly judged online and offline that many adults cave to? Their lives turn into an ongoing media circus often with no option of skipping out. Children under the age of 18 should not be allowed to take part in talent shows - a rule many shows actually follow.
More importantly, if there is a way, the content should be screened. There is something inherently wrong with children dancing to item numbers that feature adult stars wearing skimpy clothes, pulling lewd faces and doing pelvic thrusts when they should be busy being children.
####
Comments
0 comment