by Francesca Dent

Created on: November 19, 2009

Children in today's society are put through so much that it seems their childhood is over before it has even begun. It seems that children especially in Britain are under constant testing, they are subject to exams at too tender an age and have to constantly strive to meet the standard that the government want them to meet.

Whatever happened to childhood? The fun and games that millions of us remember? Reality television among other things happened to childhood. In Britain, we have Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity...Get me Out of Here which have become really popular with Britons of all ages. More recently however, there is a programme named The Family.

While Big Brother brought together complete strangers and placed them in a house, The Family was simply cameras placed in the home of... well... a family. This fly on the wall documentary followed a family of five around their home for 100 days and nights.

The family in the 2008 version of the programme consisted of the father, aged 44 the mother 40, and three children aged 22, 19 and 14. The programme featured everything that the family did 24 hours a day over the four month period. The youngest son, Tom, aged 14, faced the usual teenage issues but had to face these with cameras watching and recording his every move. Is this acceptable? We all remember how hard the teenage years are to get through so it is really fair that parents can exploit their children in this way?

How much say are the children and teenagers getting with regards to being on these programmes? What are the benefits of them being the subjects of reality TV? Surely, if anything, what happens in reality television gives yet more ammunition for bullies to torment children with.

What psychological state are children who have been involved in reality TV left in after their day to day lives have been watched by thousands of people night after night? I should imagine that the children don't have a say yet the things that happen stay with them for the rest of their lives.

We have watched child stars like Britney Spears grow up in a profession they chose to pursue and look at the damage that has caused them. If it's that bad for those who chose the fame, what will it be like for those children who didn't?

While reality television will remain popular for years to come, there is no need to watch the lives of exploited young children, their intimacies and the weaknesses unfold of television it's not as if those of us who are watching have perfect families so why should we criticise others?

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