The silence has been broken.
The recent HBO series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” exposed jarring allegations against Nickelodeon acting coach Brian Peck and showrunner Dan Schneider.
While Peck was arrested for sexually abusing then-15-year-old child star Drake Bell in 2003, the docu-series is the first time Bell has publicly shared his experience. In doing so, Bell and the other former Nickelodeon stars featured in the series brought to light a long history of abuse of child actors in the industry.
“Some of my best friends were series regulars on [Dan Schneider’s] shows, and hearing their experiences was definitely jarring,” Kamran Allahverdy said. Allahverdy is a former child actor who guest starred in “Sam and Cat,” a Nickelodeon show created by Dan Schneider.
Peck and Schneider were the main focus of the docuseries, but they are not the first Nickelodeon employees to have accusations of this type. In 2003, Jason Handy, a production assistant with Nickelodeon, was arrested for lewd acts on a child, one count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of distributing sexually explicit material by email to a minor. In 2009, Nickelodeon animator Ezel Channel was sentenced to seven years in prison for committing “lewd acts” on a 14-year-old boy and showing him pornography on set.
It’s not just Nickelodeon. USC School of Cinematic Arts professor Justin Parpan said he witnessed some “pretty awful behavior” during his time on Cartoon Network, a popular children’s animation channel.
“Everything from sexual harassment or racism to just really toxic work environments. There was lots of bullying, especially with the younger employees,” Parpan said.
In 2014 Skyler Page, creator of the Cartoon Network series “Clarence,” left the network amidst allegations of groping a female artist.
“I do blame a lot of those problems on the upper management and executive culture there that were not taking those problems seriously. It was all about the bottom line. If the show was profitable, they didn’t care about any of [the issues],” he continued.
What’s Next
After Peck’s conviction, he served 16 months in prison. Upon his release, he was hired on the set of “Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” a popular Disney Channel show starring child actors Dylan and Cole Sprouse.
Despite confessing to sexual abuse of a minor, Peck went on to continue working with children. Annenberg Media spoke to former child actress Madeline Curry about what needs to be done to improve the entertainment industry.
“Extensive background checks need to be in place for people who are going to be working with any child actors in general, but especially for people who are applying to have positions that are in charge of taking care of the actors,” Curry said.
Curry also touched on how she was able to avoid these situations as a child.
“I was going to professional jobs when I was pretty young. But my parents never left my side,” Curry said. “I was never out of their sight, and that was a huge step my parents took in preventing anything horrible from happening to me as a child.”
It has been seven years since the #MeToo movement, which raised awareness for sexual harassment in the workplace, rose to prominence. The movement took off in the film and television industries, taking down Hollywood top dogs such as Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose and Kevin Spacey.
“Before the #MeToo movement, it wasn’t very common for directors to ask the actors if they felt comfortable touching another actor. It was an assumed state of mind that if you were in that room you were expected to feel comfortable with everyone you’re working with,” Curry said.
Despite the change created by the #MeToo movement, it took until “Quiet on Set” was released for the stories of Nickelodeon child actors to gain public attention.
“I think that studios need to keep holding the ‘most important people’ accountable. Because a lot of times they create the culture of a TV show, and when those shows are toxic it comes from the top down,” Parpan said.
According to Allahverdy, some channels already have rules in place protecting their actors.
“On the Disney Channel, we had a set teacher who was there not just to teach us, but to make sure that we weren’t getting overworked and that we were being protected. I think that [having a teacher] has been the most transformative thing on any of those projects,” Allahverdy said.
“Quiet On Set” directors Mary Robertson and Emma Shwartz agreed, saying that “creating more support systems for children on sets, whether that is more access to mental health specialists or social workers,” would help curb some of these issues.
But some industry insiders want more than just internal accountability.
“Our industry needs drastic systematic change throughout, or to be completely rebuilt from the ground up,” said film producer and USC Cinematic Arts Adjunct Professor Barry Bogovich.
Currently, there is no federal legislation in place to protect child actors, but some states have passed laws such as California’s Coogan Law. This law requires employers to place 15% of a child actor’s earnings into a trust account, which can only be accessed when the actor turns 18 years old. But some want more than financial protection: They want physical protection, too.
“There’s just a patchwork of state laws, only some of which require guardians to be on set with children … there should be more federal protections for child performers,” Robertson and Shwartz said.
Whether it’s adding more support for actors on set or passing federal legislation, it is clear something has to change in the world of kids TV.