Here's the bad idea of the week: Take your 6-year-old child, put him in swimtrunks and a pool, surround him with bikini-clad adult women, and have him make sexually suggestive moves while singing lyrics like, "I can make your booty pop." Call the video "Booty Pop." Now upload it to YouTube. Voilá! Cue outrage and calls for child protection services to take the child away from his "abusive" parents. You could see this one coming, right? The video of 6-year-old Albert Roundtree, Jr. parading around in his skivs with a bunch of bikini-wearing women didn't go over so well with parents or the media. Which is sad cause the video is kind of cute!
Psychiatrist Keith Ablow bloviated to The O'Reilly Factor:
It’s child abuse, it’s sexual abuse of a 6-year-old boy ... The crime is this: they are making sexual gestures toward him. Nobody would pretend that if you walked up to a child on a beach and started to urge him to say these things while you danced in an erotic fashion around him, that you ought not to be arrested for doing that.
Oh, calm the hell down, Keith. First off, this wasn't a kid playing in the sand on the beach when an adult came over and began grinding against him. Albert, like a lot of kids, wanted to be a "rap star," and the parents, like a lot of parents, paid a production company to make him a music video. These things are all over YouTube. One of these kids, Rebecca Black, even became a legit pop star of sorts.
Was the concept of the video the smartest? No. But it's a joke. It's supposed to be funny. It's a parody of adult rap videos. Get it? No? Well, fine. So maybe the video wasn't the brightest idea. Parents do a lot of stupid things when they're trying to get their kid in show biz. Have you seen Toddlers & Tiaras?
But child abuse? Sexual abuse? There is REAL child and sexual abuse going on in this world, and I suggest we concentrate on that.
Florida child welfare services refuse to say whether Albert's parents are being investigated. I suspect mom and dad have probably learned to let the little wannabe rapper shake his booty in the privacy of his own bedroom. You know, like kids used to do.
Do you think this video is child abuse?
Image via NewsFixNow
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Comments 31
No, but I didn't find the video funny. I found it distasteful, demeaning and deplorable that someone would video a 6 yo making this kind of video.
Oh I don't think his parents learned anything...I understand there is a follow up vid in the works.
And yes, it is abuse IMO.
I 'm glad they didn't have a girl ...They probably would have had Her shaking Her booty on the stripper pole!!! I thinkit's sick,any one who needs to use their kids to like that to make money ,should not be allowed to have them In my opinion.
That is just wrong, wrong, wrong! What the hell is wrong with parents? Everyone wants to be famous and they don't care how they get there. If that boy was a girl instead, all hell would have broke loose.
I think this is sick. Just imagine it were reversed. Imagine a little 6 year old girl, with a bunch of grown men in speedo's shaking their junk at her. All those men would be labeled pedophiles in a heartbeat, yet somehow this is OK?
This is HORRIBLE! I think Child Protective Services SHOULD get involved! Hey Parents....let's hear what you have to say.....if you are trying to make money off of this....you should be put in jail!!!
But Toddlers & Tiaras does it!! That makes it all ok!!!
Give me a break. Grow up.
Why can't we just let kids be kids? If he wants to be a rap star, let him do his little rap, make his own music and video it on your camera for Grandma and Grandpa. THAT would be cute. Hiring a production company to indulge your six year old's fantasies with grown bikini-clad women is just sick. In 6 or 7 years, this kid's mother is going to wonder why her precious little darling is suspended from school for calling his teacher a bitch and his female classmates hos. Nice.
The double standard kids are subjected to is astounding to me. What if this were a little girl surrounded by grown men in speedos? But because it's a boy, surrounded by scantily clad women, singing inappropriate lyrics while making rude gestures is okay and all in good fun?
Anyone who thinks that is a total moron.
Yes, it's abuse. It's grooming a child to think certain abuses are okay. The parents may not intend that, but that's the effect.
I don't think he should be taken away from his parents, but they should have to complete a course in child development and psychology, and I think the asshole who called put it online should be cited.