India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued an advisory to all private satellite television channels to avoid suggestive and age-inappropriate representation of children in dance-based reality shows.
In an advisory on Tuesday, the ministry said it had noticed that several dance-based shows do portray young children performing difficult dance moves originally done by adults in movies and other forms of entertainment.
As some of these dance moves might be suggestive and age-inappropriate, the ministry’s advisory said this could have a distressing impact on children at a young and impressionable age.
The advisory is evoking praise from Social media users who found it to be timely.
Thank you... Finally you have come with a decision deliberately awaited... Children are not the Monkeys of circus.. https://t.co/wqgSua4GlB
— RP Singh (@rp_singh5) June 18, 2019
Govt. asks private channels to appropriately represent children in dance based reality shows #PrivateSatelliteTVChannels #appropriaterepresentationofchildren #advisory #InformationandBroadcastingministry #dancebasedRealityshows #ageinappropriate https://t.co/Ug9QivvcBX
— Sandeep Jha (@Sandeep_jha07) June 18, 2019
Appropriate representation of children in dance based Reality Shows https://t.co/RyXVdfcpIL via @rachhabandanews
— kandukuri somaiah (@kandukurisomaia) June 18, 2019
Television channels, the advisory said, should abide by the Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act.
One of the provisions in the Act calls for TV programmes to avoid showing anything that denigrates children and stipulates that child-oriented programmes should be devoid of foul language or explicit scenes of violence.