Featured Image Credit: YouTube/@podcrushed / Nickelodeon
Topics: Ariana Grande, Celebrity, Crime, True Crime, TV And Film
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Ariana Grande, Celebrity, Crime, True Crime, TV And Film
Amid the ongoing accusations that a plethora of child stars were both emotionally and physically abused by adults working at Nickelodeon, Ariana Grande has said more needs to be done to protect children working in TV.
For those unfamiliar with the singer's association with the production firm, she was cast in the production firm's teen hit Victorious in 2010 when she was just 14-years-old, as well as fan-favourite spin-off series Sam and Cat.
In the years that followed, Ariana, now 30, turned her attention to music, going on to become one of the most successful artists of all time.
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Several of Ariana's former co-stars, however, have remained in the acting industry, with some later speaking out about the alleged abuse they were subjected to at the hands of a handful of adult producers.
Amongst those to be placed under serious scrutiny is Dan Schneider, famed for producing the likes of teenage sitcom hits Drake and Josh and Zoey 101.
His reported abuse was the subject of five-part documentary series Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV, which aired earlier this year and detailed multiple counts of abuse allegations on the sets of kids TV shows in the early 2000s.
Child actor Drake Bell was amongst the numerous stars to appear in the docu-series, alleging that he was sexually abused by since-convicted sex offender Brian Peck, who also worked close to Hairspray star Amanda Bynes, who previously fronted the channel's much-loved The Amanda Show.
And this week, after mass intrigue surrounding her thoughts on the matter, Ariana Grande has broken her silence by calling for stronger measures to be put in place by TV producers to protect children from abuse.
Appearing on Gossip Girl pal Penn Badgley's hit podcast Podcrushed, the 'God Is A Woman' hitmaker reflected on her time at Nickelodeon.
Describing the ongoing accusations as 'devastating', she expressed her 'empathy' towards those that are suffering.
Touching on child acting, she explained: "Obviously, my relationship to it is currently and has been changing and I'm reprocessing a lot about what the experience was like."
She continued: "I think the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting. I think there should be therapists, there should be parents allowed to be wherever they want to be - not only on kids' sets."
The star went on to say she believes there should be inclusions in the contract which say that 'therapy is mandatory twice or thrice a week'.
"There should be an element that is mandatory of therapy, a professional person to unpack what this experience of your life-changing so drastically does to you at a young age, at any age," she went on.
"A lot of people don’t have the support that they need to get through performing at that level at such a young age."
Dan Schneider has now filed a defamation lawsuit against Quiet on Set, after claiming that the programme has ‘irreparably harmed’ his reputation.