Shock jocks are not the only ones to blame

Updated November 2 2012 - 12:08pm, first published July 30 2009 - 12:40pm

RADIO shock jocks Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O have come under significant fire - and rightly so - for their role in an on-air lie-detector test in which a 14-year-old girl revealed she had been raped.The segment was a gig gone wrong - badly wrong. Both hosts deny they had any idea the girl had been raped or that she would mention that during the interview.Regardless, bringing a 14-year-old in to talk on air about her experiences of sex and drugs, even with her mother's consent, shows a significant lack of judgement on the part of the hosts, their producers and the radio station.It is not surprising that the network and its regulatory body have been inundated with complaints.But Sandilands and Jackie O are not the only ones at fault here.The judgement of the mother also needs to be questioned. She apparently knew her daughter had been raped as a 12-year-old, yet still thought it OK to put her through a lie-detector test to talk about her sexuality.All parents should talk with their children about sex and sexuality (and, where appropriate, explain that rape is not about sex, but about power and control). But to put a child who is barely a teenager on a radio program to discuss her sex life with thousands of listeners tuned in is, as one psychologist said, "borderline child abuse".The NSW Department of Community Services is now working with the girl and her family.It is to be hoped DoCS can provide her with better avenues of support and assistance than her mother - and the radio station - has been able to.

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