[ricardobeat]

The difference is massive.

Your weird neighbour who has a feet fetish would never get to be a TV star, but he can amass 50k followers on TikTok, and request feet pics via private messages to them. Including underage children.

Now multiply that by ten thousand.

TV, by nature of being a group effort and holding a sliver of a monopoly for your attention, had a natural content filter (based on societal standards, for bad and good).

[ok_dad]

> Your weird neighbour who has a feet fetish would never get to be a TV star

Look up Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider my man.

[ricardobeat]

Haha, I was sure someone would make a comment like this. The point is that that his fetish would not be the show’s content :)

[wvenable]

The point is his fetish is in the show's content!

Although, still, a few exceptions aside doesn't invalidate your point. TV being a single group effort is much better than thousands of individual voices, what could possibly go wrong with that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fHfgU8oMSo

[ok_dad]

Well… there are some examples of them filming some very inappropriate stuff with the child actors [0]. There are other examples but I’m not on here to talk about this anymore, I just happened to learn about this subject recently and it was topical. I think it’s disgusting anyone takes advantage of others, TikTok stars or otherwise.

0 - https://youtu.be/nc-ZT4Ty05o

[ricardobeat]

I mean, that’s also kind of the point. Something like that on TV that generates worldwide commotion, gets people fired etc, is actually very mild when put near the stuff children can find online.

It’s also more of an abuse on the actors, and might pass unnoticed by young viewers, while a lot of the content on tiktok and YouTube is actively harmful, trying to indoctrinate weird ideas or stimulate inappropriate behaviour. With an audience of other kids and creeps cheering on and competing for likes in the comments. I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how much more dangerous social media is.

[wvenable]

I don't watch foot fetishists but I watch a lot of content made by people who would never get on TV on subjects too niche to ever get on TV.

Also, if you want learn how to do anything, you can find someone online that will show you how to do it.

[novok]

Replace that with books and written content on the internet, which has been a thing for almost 30 years by this point (like a lot of fanfiction on the internet).

[autoexec]

The greater risk isn't weird fetishists but the social media companies themselves who push products designed to be addictive, manipulative, and exploitive in ways that TV can't be (although it's increasingly trying to catch up)