Is Disney Promoting Programs that Harm Children?

Anne Sweeney, President Disney-ABC

In late night channel-surfing I happened to see that A&E is continuing to run Beyond Scared Straight. It continues to amaze me that companies would spend advertising dollars on promoting Scared Straight even though there is more than enough evidence that it does not help, but actually harms teens. And increases crime rates!

So I switched over to a bit of web-surfing and found that Home Depot is one of the main advertisers. I started wondering, who owns A&E? And guess what? According to Wikipedia it is a joint venture between Hearst Corporation and Disney-ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Okay, that makes me dizzy. How can Disney promote a program that harms teens? (You can contact Home Depot here. Hearst Corporation here. The Walt Disney Company here. Disney-ABC isn’t interested in hearing from us as there is no contact info on their website that I could find.)

It is just common sense that screaming at teens that they are going to end up in jail is just going to reinforce a young person’s fear that they have no worth. It is simply a way to kill any precious hope that is hiding in their heart. We all know that the antidote to teens making self-destructive decisions is to offer them positive relationships and love. James Anderson, a young man who spoke at the Models for Change Conference describes the power of relationships:

“The one thing that changed me is one person showed me—this horrible gang member, locked away from society who everyone pointed at and said he was never going to change but did—was one person showed me love, an emotion that had been eluded from my life for so long. That emotion of love was so powerful because it brought happiness into my heart and it changed everything … I realized I wanted to dedicate my heart and soul to changing the world.”

James Anderson

You can watch the full interview here. He tells his story in a way that allows you to understand the vulnerability of young people that land in the juvenile justice system. The Foster Care Work Group has introduced the concept of well-being to the YTFG, opening up the door to a much wider understanding of what it means to help young people who been scared that they have no future.

Perhaps we might help A&E understand the concept of well-being. Perhaps we might help them redesign their programming so that Beyond Scared Straight means showing programs that work. Let’s introduce them to the whole world of powerful programs that do work: YouthBuild, Maya Angela Charter School, Corps Network and so many more!