This very interesting message was posted at "We've Been There" under Warnings and Red Flags
http://pub57.ezboard.com/fwevebeenthere ... D=24.topicpaulbloom
Registered User
Posts: 1
(9/24/03 12:31 am)
Reply HELP REQUESTED FROM ENGLAND
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HELP REQUESTED FROM ENGLAND
This summer an English TV company recruited 30 sixteen year old volunteers to spend four weeks of their school holidays experiencing ?1950?s style boarding education?. During this time they were forbidden to have any contact with the outside world.
As it happens, I was at boarding school in the 1950?s and could recognise that the regime they were subjected to was a complete sham. It was just an excuse for subjecting a group of naïve and vulnerable teenagers to assaults, abuse, malnutrition and humiliation.
I have lodged a complaint with our TV regulators about this programme but no-one seems interested. I think I must be the only one who feels that assaulting and abusing teenagers for entertainment is wrong.
However, now the company, ?Twenty Twenty? and the broadcaster ?Channel 4? intend to move on. They intend to send six ?troubled teenagers? to a ?leading American therapy camp? for six weeks at the end of October. The vestigial details they have provided can be found at channel4.com/troubledteenagers.
I have written to ?Twenty Twenty? and ?Channel 4? appealing to them not to do this but received no reply. When I posted a warning on the Channel 4 website it was quickly removed and I am now prevented from making any further posts. This means that the TV people know full well what these places are like and still intend to send vulnerable English kids out to them and also that they do not want the kids warned before they go.
I have been trying everything to get this stopped without any success; it?s like banging my head against a brick wall.
Is anyone out there able to help? Firstly by deluging ?Twenty Twenty? and Channel 4 with emails and secondly, by finding out where the camp is that they are being sent to.
Please help if you can; I am really most concerned one of the kids will come home in a box.
If you wish to contact me my email is
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites ... index.htmlTROUBLED TEENAGERS
We are looking for teenagers to participate in a Channel 4 series that will see them take on a tough, exciting and maybe even life-changing challenge.
If you?re 16/17 years old and everyone says that you?re out of control and over-indulged but you want to prove them wrong, here?s your chance.
If you?re a parent who?s tried everything and still your teenager is going off the rails, then this could be just what you?re looking for.
The series will follow six 'troubled teenagers' as they travel to one of the leading therapy camps in America. They will undergo a course, devised by the camp?s expert team, that includes mountain trekking, outdoor survival, and psychological counselling.
For four to six weeks the group will live a basic outdoor existence between the desert and the mountains. The natural surroundings are beautiful; but this is no holiday camp. The teenagers who go will face a physically tough and emotionally demanding regime. The camp is not a boot camp either; discipline is strict but there is no military-style screaming and shouting.
There is nothing like this currently available in the UK, and the series will offer a truly exceptional opportunity to those who take part. If you or your teenager would like to participate, then fill in an application form for either parents or teenagers and e-mail it to
tomcoveney@twentytwenty.tv.
Application forms will only be accepted by e-mail; if you don?t have access to e-mail then call Tom Coveney or Catherine Milne on 020 7284 2020.