OPINION: Nickelodeon needs to be held accountable, but so do we

As kids, we watched shows on television without a care in the world. We watched stories unfold on our screens, laughing when the laugh track did and constantly looking forward to the next episode. But there were more to those stories than simply what we were shown. Behind the screen, child stars were experiencing trauma for the sake of an episode, for the sake of more money filling the producer’s pockets. As more reports and confessions of what was really going on behind the scenes come to light, these networks need to be held accountable — and we as a society need to be more aware of what is really happening in the background. 

In the past few years, many child stars, specifically from Nickelodeon, have come forward sharing the traumatic experiences they went through on set. Many of these allegations go back to the same man: Dan Schnieder, producer of many of our beloved Nickelodeon shows. These include “Sam and Cat”, “ICarly”, “Victorious”, “Zoey 101”, “Drake & Josh” and more. According to the Los Angeles Times, he has many allegations of encouraging young female actors to be overly sexual for the sake of “comedy” as well as supplying underage actors with alcohol to “loosen them up”. 

A couple years ago, a video compiling this sexualized content went viral. The video, titled “Ariana Grande being sexualized on Victorious for 2 minutes straight” now has over 11 million views. It includes clips from the “Sam and Cat” spinoff “Cat’s Random Thoughts”. While Ariana Grande has not come out to talk about her experiences on the show, the sexually suggestive video is incredibly difficult to watch as the intentions behind the scenes are undeniable. 

Alex Nickolas, who played Nicole Bristow in “Zoey 101”,recently organized a protest outside of Nickelodeon Headquarters. “I did not feel safe around Dan Schneider while I was working at Nickelodeon,” she told her followers on her Instagram Live. With her organization Eat Predators, Nickolas led the protest in hopes of bringing to light the horrible experiences the child actors went through. She referred to Dan Schneider as “the creator of childhood trauma.” 

Jennette McCurdy, who played Sam Puckett in “iCarly” and “Sam and Cat”, released her memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died” on Aug 9. In the book, which details McCurdy’s journey being pushed into child stardom, her relationship with her mother and her time on Nickelodeon, she refers only to “the creator” rubbing shoulders and coercing her into drinking and participating in activities she did not want to. While she tries to keep him in anonymity, it can be inferred that she is speaking about Dan Schneider, as her descriptions were similar to how other actors discuss him. She alleged that the network was aware of his actions and offered her $300,000 of “hush money” which she refused. 

While Nickelodeon cut ties with Schneider in 2018, it cannot undo the years of trauma he inflicted on these child stars, and does not ensure these actions will not be repeated with a new generation of child stars and a new “creator”. The network must be held accountable for allowing these actions to go unnoticed and unpunished. 

As consumers of this media, we also have to do our part to look into what is happening behind the scenes. Unfortunately, taking a show at face value is not something that we can do anymore. We must be aware of the media we are consuming and hold networks accountable.

As Nickolas said, we must “start protecting children and not predators”.