Child Abuse

I accidentally* watched Esther vs The PC Brigade on ITV1 tonight. Esther (Rantzen rather than Madonna in her Kaballah costume) used to be about sticking it to gas and electricity companies but now she's all about the kids. And she's calling us on our seeming lack of interest.

For her show, Esther brought two child actors to a busy shopping centre and got them to "act lost". She was then horrified when practically nobody stopped to ask the kids if they were okay. Horrified Esther? Thanks to Dakota Fanning, most normal people hate child actors so couldn't care less if those kids were abducted.

But the real issue was that some men admitted that they wanted to help but didn't. Mainly because they didn't want to open themselves to charges of child abduction/molestation/kiddie rape/kidnapping a child from a supermarket and drugging it and then driving it to an abandoned industrial estate etc... Clearly those men are in a dark, dark place. And I suppose that is the point.

In a classic case of overthinking the situation, modern men are circumventing their natural inclination to care for kids and they're stepping back - just in case the world misinterprets their actions. As a gay man, I've often experienced this. At the end of the day, it's a trade off between what's best for the child and what's best for you (or your reputation). I happen to think that the kid comes first.

Besides, I don't care much for my reputation anyway.

*I don't normally watch ITV. I used to work for ITV so I know it's TV made by "mavericks" for "mavericks"... and I use the term in the sense Sarah Palin uses it.