MANHATTAN, New York - Anti-child abuse advocates on Sunday condemned a video of a six-year-old boy doing a male stripper dance in a popular Philippine TV show.
The Guardian Angels is a non-profit international volunteer organization of unarmed citizen crime patrollers. On Sunday, they mounted a street rally in New York to push for tougher laws against child abuse.
"This child, dancing like in a perverse way, coerced, with an audience seeing this happen-these people should definitely be reprimanded and stopped," Andrew Rodney said in an interview.
Producer and TV host Dave Brodsky also condemned the video, which went viral on YouTube.
"I saw that, and it's child abuse. You're exploiting a little kid for your own purposes, for television, for entertainment purposes. It's not entertainment. Child abuse is pathetic," he said.
He added: "If you don't like what somebody is doing, contact the advertisers. Boycott the advertisers. They'll pull their advertising, no TV show."
Nineteen-year-old Genna Rae Basalatan was one of the dancers when Wowowee, Willie Revillame's former show, came to Atlantic City, New Jersey 3 years ago. But after seeing Jan-jan's controversial video, she said she will never dance for Willie again. "I feel disgusted that I actually danced on that show," she said.
The father of 12-year-old Nina Sophia Mojares, an aspiring artist, said what happened to Jan-Jan was exploitation.
"Would I let my six-year-old son do that? I do have a 6 year old son, I wouldn't let him do that."
Some parents at the rally also condemned Jan-Jan's parents for consenting and allowing their child to be exploited on national TV. The advocates said the boy's parents should get some child abuse awareness seminar and counselling .
Advocates gathered in New York to call on President Obama and Congress to push for harsher penalties for child abusers.
Rosey Morrisroe, founder of the Nixzmary Brown Law Campaign, said, "Our proposal is that if you abuse a child, you murder a child, or you molest a child one time, one strike and you're out ."