Experts call for seedy US import to be banned

Jul 3 2011 by Dan Warburton, Sunday Sun

SENIOR health experts last night backed a bid to ban a US TV show that “exploits” young women from coming to the North.

US phenomenon Girls Gone Wild has won notoriety across the pond for producing programmes in which drunk women are approached in bars and clubs to strip and perform provocatively on camera.

The show’s millionaire makers, Mantra Films, recently announced plans for a two-month UK tour, prompting fears they would head North.

Now, in a letter seen by the Sunday Sun, two senior health officials have blasted the show and called for it to be banned from our streets.

In the letter, distributed to councillors, they claim the show would exploit vulnerable young girls and could even lead to sex attacks.

The Tyneside-based medics said: “If Mantra Films are allowed to operate and film Girls Gone Wild in the UK, we are extremely concerned that vulnerable girls will be exploited and assaulted for profit whilst intoxicated.”

It adds: “Girls Gone Wild approaches young women in clubs or on the street and encourages them to flash their breasts, simulate sex acts and have sex on camera.

“Young women having a reduced ability to consent to filming of a sexual nature due to intoxication, thus increasing the risk of coercion and sexual assault or rape.”

Scores of DVDs have been filmed across America showing hundreds of young women stripping off in public.

Creators claim the show is a “celebration of freedom and expression”.

Tour organisers conducted an online poll to compile a list of UK locations where fans voted for the bus to stop off.

But last night Anita Lower, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Newcastle City Council, called for the producers to be banned from filming.

She said: “I’m quite horrified that this is thought to be acceptable behaviour and it’s not what we would want to see in Newcastle.

“I would hope that something was done to protect vulnerable young women. We’ve done a lot in the city to make it a safe place and I would hope that young women were not exploited for entertainment purposes.”