Sorry, not sure why that’s an “except that”? I agree with you -- if the kids were performing in a different context, there would be some protections. 

Yeah, technology definitely outpaced the human rights issues. I can see where it’d be complicated to implement protection, especially for kids who live in rural or remote areas. But after this and DaddyofFive it’s pretty clear some kind of oversight is needed.

We had a beloved cat put down last year. It wasn’t done to short-circuit things and “fuck with [our] child’s grief.” She was in kidney failure, which is basically the common cold of old-cat deaths, and she was miserable — skinny and frail, not grooming herself, unable to make it to the litterbox. And even with all…

I don’t think YouTube is responsible for the abuse; if it wasn’t for the channel, this lady would probably have been beating her children for not making their beds or spilling juice or whatever. But the site gave her a way to make money by putting her kids to work with absolutely no oversight, and it does need to…

I was thinking the same thing. Basically kids on monetized YouTube channels are child actors — they should get the same protections as any other child performer. We can’t stop people from abusing their kids, but we can at least make it harder for them to make money off of it.

These two are just in different stages of life, which used to matter less when they weren’t staring down a lifetime together, but now it might be too big an obstacle.

Jordan wasn’t stupid, though. He had a learning disability, and the schools back then were pretty bad about just bouncing kids like him along without making sure they learned anything. He wasn’t as bright as Angela or Brian, but he wasn’t some drooling moron, either.

I’d agree about Brian Austin Green — he landed Megan Fox in real life, after all. Ian Ziering did nothing for me on the show, but the internet tells me he aged pretty well.

I had no idea, but that makes me really happy for her. I always identified with Andrea most anyhow.

Yeah, that’s a smart take. I think there are responsible ways to give a child a career as a performer and irresponsible ways, and what Joy Robson did was definitely on the irresponsible end of the spectrum.

What about poor Ian Ziering? It can’t have been fun to be the least sexy person in a hot teenage cast.

Does anybody else remember being torn between Brandon and Dylan for exactly the reasons laid out in this essay? Brandon was pretty, and he was the star, and he was smart and kind ... but Dylan was sexy, even though I was too young at the time to really know what sexy was. I believe I split the difference and put…

And it sounds like the Safechucks kind of stumbled into Jackson’s circle, where Joy Robson actively tried to get Wade in front of Michael while they were in LA. I understand she was probably trying to promote Wade’s dance career ... but he was seven, so wanting him to *have* a career is pretty messed up in itself.

It’s sick to think about this, but Feldman was probably too old for Jackson to molest. He was already in his teens by the time he got to know MJ, and it sounds like Jackson liked his victims four or five years younger. And there aren’t any public allegations from before 1990, anyhow, so Jackson might not have even…

Fair point! I don’t think she thought about it that deeply; she was just annoyed that the movie didn’t show Vivian’s career choice as being a total life-ruiner. She grew up Catholic in a small town, and sometimes it shows. 

I can actually answer this as someone with a milder version of your husband’s preferences. (Eat ham if it’s the only thing offered but not otherwise, like bacon just fine.) Bacon is basically a condiment — it adds salt and crunch to a meal. It’s like meat potato chips, and who doesn’t like potato chips?

We had my daughter’s six-month portraits taken in an adorable red turtleneck. I was showing them at work and someone mistook her gender. When I corrected her, she said “then why didn’t you get her ears pierced?”

Yep! Sounds like a perfectly cromulent plot to me.

I was in middle school when Pretty Woman came out, and I don’t think I’ve seen it all the way through since. The big thing I remember is that my mom was very much in the :it glamorizes prostitution” camp, and asked in all seriousness why Vivian couldn’t be a waitress or a dog-walker instead.

Hee, it’s okay. 25 years ago SHOULD be 1975.