Eastenders And Its Portrayal Of Child Abuse

The recent crack down on a child abuse ring has arrived at the same time that the controversial child abuse story line in Eastenders has come to a head.
In July this year Bianca Jackson, an infamous Eastenders classic character arrived back on the square with a bang. She brought with her a brood of children and the story of marvelous Tony who was incarcerated. As Tony emerged on to our screens it became apparent that he was in a relationship with Bianca's 15 year old step daughter Whitney. Eastenders then received 200 complaints, but in my view the story was handled tactfully and was not over sensationalised.

As mentioned in my previous post, child abuse is not something from which we can escape. It is at a global scale and is at crisis levels. So by removing it from our screens we are as nation adopting a see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil attitude. Just because we are not exposed to it at entertainment levels it does not mean that it doesn't exist.

Eastenders did not use this story to show sordid scenes that would bring them headlines and viewers, they exposed the manipulation that comes in to child abuse and highlighted the term 'grooming' in a way that may now instruct parents to recognise when a new adult entering their childs life is someone to be suspicious of. Not only this but the producers and actors involved worked closely with the NSPCC, allowing for genuine research and careful monitoring.

Tuesday the 9th of December saw this story line come to a head, Whitney revealed all to Bianca and she subsequently called the police. In this one episode it was revealed that the abuse began when Whitney was 12, her naivety was exposed and Tony's manipulation reached tumultuous levels as he shifted the blame to Whitney.

For most Eastenders with its story lines including who killed Den and Frank Butchers spinning bow tie, is a crass pro gramme. Its depiction of East End life is usually far from the truth and it serves only as mindless viewing. I personally watch it as I spend most of my day with my head engaged in 17th century literature, Chaucer, Anglo Saxon Language etc as part of my degree, so at the end of the day I like a bit of 'trashy' viewing to give my mind a rest. This story line however was not trashy, it touched a real issue and did it with great levels of decorum. Hopefully Eastenders will continue to deliver.