Child Actors
Can Sexual Predators Still Work on Kids Sets? Here’s the Federal Loophole That Could Let Them
That’s So Raven star Raven-Symoné was never asked to take a sexual harassment course as a young entertainer. She and other former child stars want this to change
Raven-Symoné became a child entertainer at just 16 months old, starring in shows like the The Cosby Show at age 3, and leading Disney Channel classics like The Cheetah Girls and That’s So Raven as a teenager. As discussion around child labor laws escalate within entertainment, Raven, now 38, says she was unaware of sexual predators lurking on set and was never asked to take a sexual harassment course as a young entertainer.
“As long as the child comes to set, and they know their lines and they do their marks and there’s no visible bruising on themselves, no one’s checking,” Symone tells Rolling Stone. “And there’s more than just physical abuse out there. I’ve met it, I’ve seen it. I know it.”
Brian Peck, a dialogue coach on Nickelodeon’s All That and The Amanda Show sexually assaulted Drake & Josh star Drake Bell when Bell was 15. After Bell informed authorities of the abuse allegations, Peck pleaded no contest to two charges of child sexual abuse, and by October 2004, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison and required to register as a sex offender.
Soon after Peck’s departure from Nickelodeon, he went on to work on Disney Channel’s Suite Life of Zach & Cody, a production stage across the hall from the That’s So Raven set. Raven, who says she rarely interacted with the cast and crew on the neighboring show, called Bell’s sexual abuse story sad but not uncommon. It’s part of the reason she is calling for additional background checks and mental health professionals on all sets.
“I will give kudos to the new generation who are not afraid to say no,” Raven says. “My generation was run by fear. It was like, ‘You better not say you’re not coming to work because they’ll pick somebody else.’
Following the release of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, the recent Investigation Discovery docuseries that interrogates sexual abuse and toxic workplace allegations behind the kid shows, former Nickelodeon actors and writers are drawing attention to the loophole within federal legislation and the additional regulations they’d like to see from the actors union, SAG-AFTRA. In the docuseries, former Nickelodeon child stars and crew members detailed the massage requests, sexually suggestive jokes, misogynistic comments, and racially charged behavior within the slime-covered network. Since the docuseries aired, former child stars and a TV writer have called for sexual harassment training courses for kids, mental health professionals on set, more transparency within internal investigations, and heavier enforcement of background checks at a federal level, so sexual predators like Peck stay off set. While Paramount (which now owns Nickelodeon) has implemented many of these measures, they want to see it legally required on all sets, across the industry.
According to a Nickelodeon spokesperson, Paramount takes measures to prevent any abuse. In a statement, the spokesperson referred to the company’s Environmental, Social, And Governance (ESG) Strategy 2022-2023 report. “We comply with the applicable child labor laws and follow strict regulations and protocols to protect child talent in each location where we operate. This may include, but is not limited to, hiring studio teachers and welfare workers, verifying Coogan trust accounts (savings accounts for child performers), ensuring the presence of parents and guardians on set, and limiting the number of hours that minors can work on set.”
In addition, a spokesperson shared that Nickelodeon uses a “robust background-check program” for crew members who work with minors and “periodic training” with clients who interact with kids. Parents or guardians are required on set, the statement reads, and have a “production risk team” available for minors if need be.
Despite this, Quiet on Set directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz revealed a discrepancy in child actor regulations at the federal level. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 prohibits the use of “oppressive child labor” in the U.S., but exempts young performers from its child labor provisions. This exemption hands the states the power to regulate a child’s work permit, work hours, and schooling requirements, and 17 states have no regulations at all.
“That’s how you can have a situation in which someone who was a registered sex offender on sites where children were also working,” Schwartz tells Rolling Stone.
Sexual Predators on Set
Raven charmed audiences as Olivia in The Cosby Show, a sitcom helmed by the now-disgraced Bill Cosby — who was accused by more than 60 women of sexual assault and misconduct. Raven doesn’t get into detail but attributes her survival in the entertainment industry to her protective parents.
“My parents never allowed me to hold hands with any adults,” she says. “I was not allowed to sit on any laps of any adults, and I was not allowed to go into anybody’s dressing room without them or anywhere else. I was three years old, period.”
Around the same time of Peck’s arrest, Los Angeles police arrested Jason Handy, a production assistant on The Amanda Show and All That, for a lewd act on a child. Law enforcement found mounds of child pornography, including 10,000 files of child sexual abuse material and a CD with sexually explicit content involving minors in his home. In 2004, Handy was sentenced to six years in prison for pleading no contest to two felony counts (one for lewd acts on a child and the other for distributing explicit material via email) and a misdemeanor related to child sexual exploitation.
Following Peck, Handy and other cases, California lawmakers signed a law in 2012 that required photographers, managers, acting coaches, and publicists who work with child performers to obtain a Child Performer Services Permit but many professionals have failed to register, according to a Deadline investigation.
In the Disney Channel reboot Raven’s Home, which Raven produced and starred in, producers hired a therapist to work with child actors on the second season. As Raven reflects on federal legislation, she says she wants background checks for every person who interacts with a child actor and access to mental health professionals.
“One thing that should be mandatory and free is a therapist,” Raven says, referring to federal laws. “I think by the time that kid can talk in sentences, if you are a child star, and you have a SAG card and you are auditioning – you didn’t even have to get a job – you need a therapist.”
Alexa Nikolas, who starred in the first two seasons of Zoey 101, also says that shows involving children should hold courses on consent, coercion and how to detect signs of predatory behavior before production begins. A professional should also teach child actors on how to make a formal complaint, she adds.
“We want to make sure that kids are aware of how to report things, how to know if something is inappropriate, and they should have implemented that especially after Jason Handy and Brian Peck and there were many others,” Nikolas says.
Existing Child Actor Regulations
SAG-AFTRA’s chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez tells Rolling Stone that the union spends time “administering contract requirements” such as setting working hours for young performers, prioritizes complaints involving minors, has a “committee of young performers” and helps fund programs like Looking Ahead, a program within the Entertainment Community Fund that focuses on the mental health of young performers.
Looking Ahead national director Chris Smith says when he joined the program in 2014, they had a handful of kids who requested counseling but he says in recent years outreach has ballooned. They’re looking to put up mental health posters across nationwide sets and disseminate “what to expect” videos for child actors joining a new project.
“I know there’s union guidelines, but a lack of uniformity in [federal] legislation allows for cracks and that allows for different people, different states, different productions, to take different liberties that aren’t always in the best interest of the child,” Smith tells Rolling Stone.
SAG-AFTRA’s website lists a 24/7 hotline for on-set safety issues. The actors union also has a reporting tool that provides referrals for therapeutic, legal or law enforcement assistance along with a phone line that offers support from clinical professionals.
Jenny Kilgen, a writer for the first season of The Amanda Show, issued a letter in March to the actors union, SAG-AFTRA, demanding background checks, access to mental health providers during and after employment, and the creation of a child safety and welfare task force. (Kilgen says that SAG-AFTRA has not yet responded to her letter.)
“When I was at Nickelodeon, there were no guidelines about working with children,” Kilgen tells Rolling Stone. “There weren’t any boundaries in place that were in writing. You’re kind of left to your own boundaries.” Kilgen says the network’s treatment of Bell’s sexual assault case worries her, and going forward, wants networks to commit to conducting transparent internal investigation conducted by a third party anytime there’s an allegation of child sexual abuse.
“Drake Bell’s dad talked in [Quiet on Set] about his concern to Nickelodeon regarding Brian Peck’s behavior but seemingly no action was taken,” Kilgen tells Rolling Stone. “So, to me, this demonstrated a lack of reporting and investigation procedure and how their personal feelings for the predator could have clouded their judgment.”
Kilgen adds that she’d like adults working with children to have “age-appropriate training,” especially after learning of Peck’s close relationship with other child stars like Leonardo DiCaprio. “Seeing that video of Brian Peck rubbing Leo DiCaprio’s arm like that, I don’t know how that happened,” she says, referring to a video in the docuseries. “I don’t know how that physical conduct is allowed to happen. It was so uncomfortable to watch.”
In SAG-AFTRA’s latest contract, ratified last December, a producer can choose to require a background check as a term of employment for anyone who works closely with a minor, according to Rodriguez.
“SAG-AFTRA’s most recent agreement requires background checks for any ‘teacher or welfare worker (or other individual assigned to perform the same duties as a welfare worker, such as a child labor coordinator) who is engaged by the Producer to supervise or teach minors employed under the Agreement,’” Rodriguez wrote in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Loophole in Federal Protections for Child Actors
Although SAG-AFTRA has toughened regulations, former child actors and writers are still looking for wider protections across all child entertainment shows. Alyson Stoner, known for her roles in Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Camp Rock, has been a staunch advocate for child actors and exposes the dark realities of becoming a young starlet in her Dear Hollywood podcast. In a 2021 op-ed for People, Stoner shared that she faced sexual harassment, severe eating disorders, and child labor law violations.
“For a child actor, our job does not start and end when we clock in on set,” Stoner tells Rolling Stone. “We’re doing auditions during our lunch break, press interviews after set, events and charitable speaking engagements on the weekend, traveling for meet and greets on Sunday to get back to work on Monday. So we have about 10 jobs in one.”
Stoner says she wants to see SAG-AFTRA succeed with its mission but also sees room for improvement. Although SAG-AFTRA mandates background checks for teachers or welfare workers, Stoner says, the teacher often doubles as the welfare worker and it’s “physically impossible” for them to be everywhere all at once. Therefore, productions should hire a third party professional to supervise on set activities.
“Let me put on the cap of a child who’s not even double digits, who in other cases might be trying to decipher what they want to eat for breakfast and dinner, [and] in this case is carrying the weight of a family, a team of 20, and a network,” Stoner says.
Although the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which enforces child labor protections, has undergone several updates, it does not require background checks for people who work with child actors, if a parent or guardian is present (enforced by the state). Child performers are exempt from the 1938 law, which means there’s no federal oversight for putting child actors in adult environments, says Quiet on Set co-director Emma Schwartz. Since the release of the docuseries, Quiet on Set co-director Mary Robertson says she’s hearing a clear call to update the federal regulation.
“There’s more federal legislation protecting children working in industrial conditions than working in entertainment and that makes a certain amount of sense until you learn about the conditions that children on sets have experienced,” Robertson says.