“I’m scared. It’s not fair”, Rachel.
The lie detector incident on 2Day FM involving a 14-year-old girl who revealed she had been raped at age 12 was not a case of a radio stunt going horribly wrong as some have put it. It was horribly wrong before it even started.
Austereo’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O had planned to publicly interrogate a child about sex and drugs on live radio. That was ethically questionable even before the shattering disclosure by the girl that she had been raped.
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A vulnerable girl, clearly at risk and deserving of protection, became a media plaything in a few ugly seconds.
Listening to the audio of the girl’s live-to-air ordeal is like witnessing a forced confession. Three adults are lined up against her.
JACKIE O: Has she told you she's had s-x before or do you think she's a virgin?
MICHELLE (mother): ... I think she might have had s-x before.
JACKIE O: Right. But she hasn't said anything?
MICHELLE: No.
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JACKIE O: Alright we have her hooked up to the lie detector!
KYLE: Ohhhh!
JACKIE O: She's not happy! …
KYLE: How are you Rachel?
RACHEL: I'm scared. It’s not fair …
She is asked about sex.
RACHEL: I've already told you about this and don't look at me and smile because it's not funny! Oh, OK! I got raped when I was 12-years-old!
KYLE: Right. And is that the only experience you've had?
MICHELLE: I only found out about that a couple of months ago. Yes, I knew about that.
RACHEL: And yet you still asked me the question.
While it is Rachel who is the one on trial, her answers resonate with truth and an insight lacking in her interrogators. I am scared, it’s not fair, but here is what you are forcing from me. I was raped. You already knew that yet you’re making me tell the world.
Although Sandilands tries to gouge more from her as though the rape of a child is just one item in a buffet of possible sexual experiences, she is silent.
Suffering the forced violation of her body, her abuser walking free for the past two years, what is she given? An on air mauling on the Kyle and Jackie Oh No show; forced sex followed by a forced confession; her human rights violated a second time.
It didn’t matter that she was scared. Nothing should stand in the way of a young girl’s public shaming.
Jackie O said the team never intended to stage a "sick stunt".
"There is no way we would want to go down that path or put that girl in that situation …" she said.
But Jackie, you did put her in that situation.
Sandilands righteousness indignation was expressed in Punch:
“… what should have been dealt with as her private situation ended up being one of the biggest news stories of the day,” said the man trying to reinvent himself as Mr Care Bear.
But he had no hesitations conducting an intrusive and insensitive inquiry into a minor’s sexual history. Research shows that sexually active children of this age are often dealing with serious problems such as family breakdown and parental dysfunction, substance abuse, psychological problems and coerced sex.
Kyle and Jackie barging in with their intimidating lie detector were never going to be able to sensitively handle any of this.
Sandilands seems to have a complete inability to accept responsibility for what happened. It’s all about nasty people out to get him and spoil his fun show.
This episode is not an unfortunate slip up. The program has a sordid history of sexual stunts.
According to MediaWatch, in past lie detector episodes "contestants have had their honesty tested on subjects like STD's; m-sturbation; an-l s-x; threesomes; and eating f-eces during s-x."
Then there was “Kyle and Jackie O's Vaginey Line-Up!” in which program guest Vince was given 10 seconds to identify his girlfriend’s genitals from four naked women.
On May 6 this year, Kyle and his male radio announcer buddies (in a show syndicated around the country) held a competition in the station office to see who could masturbate the fastest and who had the largest sperm count.
With armloads of porn, they were sent to cordoned off toilets. One of the players returned and wiped his “sticky” hand through Jackie’s hair.
The photo gallery on the 2Day FM website declared, “See Jackie get a hairful, take a closer look at Geoff’s shirt after the incident ... there is a definite stain!! And see Kyle finish first!”
Perhaps someone should take another look at self-regulation. There's not much of it to be found on the Kyle and Jackie O Show, where children like Rachel are preyed upon, treated as mere fodder for entertainment and ratings.