EastEnders tackles child abuse
Friday, July 4th, 2008Trouble in the Jackson family
Soap opera EastEnders will tackle the issue of child sex abuse in what could potentially be a controversial storyline, the BBC has announced.
The plot will involve Bianca Jackson’s 15 year old stepdaughter Whitney, played by Shona McGarty - pictured right - and her stepfather Tony who has not yet appeared on screen.
Full details of the storyline have not yet been released but commentators think that it will kick off when Tony is released from prison and appears in Albert Square.
A spokeswoman for EastEnders said the programme was working closely with the children’s charity the NSPCC to portray accurately the devastating effect of child abuse. “EastEnders is a contemporary drama which aims to tackle and reflect real life issues together with raising awareness of the sensitivities that sometimes accompany them,” she said. “EastEnders has successfully drawn attention in the past to a number of sensitive issues including domestic violence, rape and HIV.”
The NSPCC’s director of communications, John Grounds, said that programmes like EastEnders help raise awareness of the horrors of sexual abuse, which usually happens behind closed doors. “The NSPCC’s work with the BBC on the forthcoming EastEnders storyline is aimed at ensuring the portrayal of child abuse accurately reflects the damage it can do to the victim, their family and the wider community,” he said. “This is vital in persuading people to take action to stop it and encouraging children to speak out.”
The soap has been criticised in recent months by Ofcom for airing controversial storylines before the 9pm watershed. The regulator ruled that a story aired in February portraying a gang attack in the Queen Vic and a girl who went into premature labour, had shown “sustained violence, intimidation and menace”.
