Parents Beware: New Reality Show Exploits Girls

Another new reality show is launching this week, and parents should beware. “The Hottest Girl in America” series is yet another sexually exploitative show that entices teenage girls and young women to bare all and behave provocatively in order to be featured on the show and potentially win the show’s title role.  This show, in the same vein as it’s equally inappropriate predecessor “Girls Gone Wild”, both of which were created by Joe Francis, gets girls to imitate porn stars, strippers and pole dancers, emboldened by the cheers of hungry, horny boys.

Where do these girls get the idea that stripping, gyrating, spanking, lap dancing etc. etc. ad nauseam is attractive?  In the Pornography 101 segment of our program we interviewed teenage boys and girls.  One girl, Courtney shared that she was merely acting out what she had seen in pornography, and that she felt pressure to fulfill the sexual expectations of her boyfriends who were also being fed a steady diet of pornography.

And, according to the New York Post, another new show is set to be filmed called “Auctioning Off Virgins”.  The Post also reported that the virgin’s first sexual experience will be filmed for viewers to watch.  Not only do these shows send a destructive message to girls that this is the way to get noticed—both by the opposite sex and a large viewing audience—but it also sends the message to boys and girls that a female’s value is based on her body and sexual appeal and little else. I shutter to think of the consequences these teenage girls and young women will face once they mature and realize that their sexuality will be on display online forever. There are no take backs, much like the loss of ones virginity.  The producers of these shows should be ashamed of themselves, but then again, that’s just wishful thinking.

Parents should be aware that content from these shows and others like it, which include nudity and other inappropriate content, is freely and easily accessible to your kids online.  As kids are watching more and more video content online, whether via YouTube, Hulu or this site, HD Net, they can come across pornography, violence, and other dangerous content if you aren’t using parental controls.

As our culture and our kids have unregulated access to hardcore pornography online, it seems as though we are creating a viewing public that is totally desensitized to sexual content, which is having a harmful impact on our kids.

We recommend that parents utilize technical and non-technical measures (we call them Internet Safety 101 Rules ‘N Tools®:http://www.internetsafety101.org/safety.htm) to protect kids from these types of shows online.  Remember also that your kids can access this content through a laptop, gaming console, cell phone or other mobile device, so please utilize Rules ‘N Tools® across all Internet-enabled devices.

Excessive time online, especially at night, may indicate a problem. Remind your child that Internet use is a privilege, not a right. If necessary, utilize time-limiting software tools, which allow parents to manage the amount of time and times of day their children are allowed online.

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• Tagged: auctioning off virgins, Girls gone wild, Harms of Pornography, Internet Safety 101, New york Post, parenting, Rules 'N Tools