The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Tuesday issued an advisory to all private satellite television channels to ensure appropriate representation of children in dance-based reality shows. The Ministry has advised channels to exercise restraint and display sensitivity and caution while showing reality shows and programmes, especially those that feature children.
According to a statement released by the Ministry, the advisory was issued after it was noticed that several dance-based reality television shows portray young children performing dance moves that were originally performed by adults in movies and other popular modes of entertainment.
“These moves are often suggestive and age-inappropriate. Such acts may also have a distressing impact on children, impacting them at a young and impressionable age,” the official statement said.
The advisory to all private satellite TV channels directed them to avoid showing children in an indecent, suggestive or inappropriate manner in dance reality shows or other such programmes. The channels have been further advised to exercise maximum restraint, sensitivity, and caution while showing such reality shows and programmes.
All private satellite TV Channels have been asked to abide by the provisions contained in Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and rules framed. As per the rules, no programme should be carried on TV which denigrates children and further programmes meant for children should not contain any bad language or explicit scenes of violence.
There has been a larger debate over the ethics of having children as contestants on dance-based reality shows and other similar talent contests on television. Two years ago, director Shoojit Sircar had tweeted seeking a ban on reality shows that feature children, saying that they "destroy them emotionally and their purity (sic).”
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has guidelines to regulate the participation of children in television serials, reality shows and advertisements. “No child should be made to perform or enact scenes or mouth dialogues that are inappropriate for his/her age or those that may cause him/her distress,” it states.