MANY controversies and scandals rock the world of US television. Very instructively, however, the biggest firestorm this month is currently raging over a video clip that?s been showing on many TV programs, including some newscasts. The video clip is of a musical number in which some eight girls, some as young as 7, are shown all dolled up like little Beyoncés, shimmying and ?sexily? gyrating to the tune of a medley of her hit songs.

Many American parents, teachers and other adults, not to mention most hosts of programs that show the dance clip, profess to be hugely shocked at the ?precocious sexualization? of the very young dancers. They point to it as a disturbing example of how the US media, especially television, has ?sexualized? its young viewer-imitators, to the extent that the girls? parents thought there was nothing wrong about their children gyrating and cavorting about like randy little seductresses in heat.

In fact, public opinion about this dance video has been so overwhelmingly negative that it?s prompted some people to call for a stringent review of what can and can?t be seen on TV, since the popular medium is viewed by impressionable and psychologically vulnerable minors, often without parental supervision.

What?s even more shocking about this TV picture? Pretty much the same and sometimes even worse can be seen on Philippine TV in a regular basis ? and nobody gives a hoot!

Aping adults

As anybody who watches the boob tube knows only too well, ?sexily gyrating? kids are often seen on TV here, sometimes even at high noon, slavishly aping the slippery, ?spaghetti? movements of adult ?bold? dancers.

In fact, it isn?t only on TV that the slithering, shimmying movements are danced by little girls who imitate the ?trendy? torso-twisting routines made popular on the tube: Even in neighborhood and barangay (village) celebrations and school programs, the sexy numbers are performed by clueless minors ? as their parents and teachers laugh and applaud.

They think it?s the cutest thing that their little darlings look, move and dance exactly like the sexy women on TV ? and they don?t worry for one minute about ?precocious sexualization,? the exotic exploitation of women and the fact that the girls are much too young to be behaving like sexy sluts.

Clueless?

So, why have we become so clueless, jaded and dense? Let?s hope that it isn?t because we simply don?t care about protecting our little children from the seductive importunings of ?trendy? media images.
It?s normal for us to want to ?belong,? but we should also be aware of the dangers involved when factors like extreme youth and exploitation are involved.

How can we help more Filipinos become more sensitive to these and other potentially negative effects of irresponsible practices on TV and in the music, dance and fashion fields?

First off, our TV people need to be much more responsible than they have been. Next, the government agencies set up to supervise TV in this country must do a better job.

Cleaning up

Third, viewers themselves should get involved in cleaning and clearing up the murky and muggy TV picture.

In other countries, viewers have set up their own monitoring groups, which wield a lot of influence on TV practitioners and advertisers. Why don?t concerned viewers here similarly get organized so they can use their collective ?viewer power? to persuade, or even force, irresponsible TV people to do what?s right for young viewers?

Little has been done in this regard, and the result is the shockingly irresponsible misuse of TV as a ?teaching? tool ? for the most part, it ?teaches? the worst lessons that should be strongly rejected by parents, teachers and other members of society who care about our children. More pro-actively, we should uphold the need to protect them from negative and harmful influences that they?re too young to judiciously process and contend with.