Rebuttal: Child Actor Role Models

Rebuttal to Kimchi's opening statement:
Child actors should be seen as role models to both people their age and to the younger audiences that look up to them.  People change, over time, but as actors, it is part of their job to play good role models to all of their audiences.  You can't just tell a child that someone they admire cannot be a role model, because they won't listen to you, if they admire someone, unless they find out something they dislike about them, they will continue to look up to them as role models.  If a child actor takes some inappropriate action, children are likely to do something similar, or consider what they are doing as fine, and may do something similar when they grow older.  If someone their age likes them a lot, then they might do the same to increase their self esteem, or to make themselves feel cooler.

Miley Cyrus's behavior and style drastically changed for a while, but for a while, it seems, she has gone back to the innocent(ish) Miley Cyrus that we all first knew.  True, there are many things out there that spark controversy about her, but since she is an actor, she should be considered a role model to all her audiences, and be required to watch her actions, to make sure that the actions she takes are proper and make her a good role model.  When people see the pictures Miley Cyrus with Avan Jogia on her birthday, she created a poor role model to her audiences, and gave them the message that it is perfectly fine to hook up with someone on a birthday, wearing a skimpy outfit at a club, and getting "hot and heavy."

What exactly is wrong with an actor playing a role that is younger than their actual age?  When people watch the show, they don't always compare how well the actor is playing the role in relation to how old they actually are.  People watch it to see how convincing their acting is, and for the drama and story line in the movie or TV show.

When child actors are role models to their audience, their audiences are younger, and have much more energy to make a change if they want to.  Disney channel had all their major stars of their shows and movies participate in Friends for Change (info here).  Friends for Change has done a lot to help the planet with the help of their fans, who view them as role models.  Because they are role models, and people follow their actions, when they see actors tell them to do something, like take a particular action to help make a change for the better health of the planet, they are more likely to do it, and it makes it possible for "hundreds of Disney VoluntEARS [to] Team Up to Scour the shorelines and Clean Up" county beaches.

Child actors should be role models to all audiences, because if they are good role models, in encourages their fans to do better things, that have more positive results, than if they weren't role models, and they would not be as likely to have positive results.

Should child actors be expected to be role models? I say YES.

Child actors in shows marketed for young audiences should be expected to serve as role models for their young audiences.  Some people claim that child actors should have the right to make mistakes and to do whatever they want and not be judged so harshly by society by it, but the mistakes that they make are still seen by their younger audiences, and oftentimes, they don't understand that they are making a mistake, but that they are doing it since they are "cool" or something.  When a Disney star like David Henrie for example goes out drinking when he is 19, even if it is in Puerto Rico, where the legal drinking age is 18, younger audiences don't understand that concept.  They don't look up the legal drinking age in Puerto Rico.  They just take it as a 19 year old American actor is drinking, and that it is perfectly fine to drink alcohol.  


Even though Lindsay Lohan isn't portrayed as a Disney actor as much anymore, she first launched her career in the Disney movie, the Parent Trap.  Lohan has been in many scandals recently, including multiple DUIs and drug charges.  She was sentenced to 90 days in jail in July, 2010, 30 days for her first DUI arrest, another 30 days for her second arrest, and 30 more days for reckless driving, but in the end, she only had to serve 13 days in jail before being released and sent directly to drug rehabilitation.  Teenagers or younger audiences may absorb these events in a different manner than people who understand the situation differently will.  Younger audiences might think that driving under the influence, using drugs (like cocaine, which Lohan uses), or reckless driving is perfectly fine, because even if they do it and get arrested for it, they won't get into much trouble, since they may think that they won't need to serve the full sentence like Lohan did.  


Child actors are often seen as role models to younger audiences, and if they are constantly exposed to the actors they look up to doing things that aren't viewed as "proper" to society, they won't understand that, since they are often too young to decipher between the wrong and the right.  Child actors should act as role models to their audiences, and act in a way that won't harm others if imitated or followed.


Resources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/comments_blog/2010/07/free-lindsay-lohan-ordered-to-jail-but-for-how-long-.html
http://backseatcuddler.com/2009/03/05/latest-disney-star-scandal-booze-skanks/ (I read a lot of the comments for opinions and some ideas.)

The Drinking Age Should NOT Be Lowered

Hello, we are Tiffany Cao and Amber Chan. Today, we would like to explain and share the reasons why we believe the drinking age should not be lowered.

Drinking age should not be lowered because our own body isn't capable of resisting alcohol. 21-year-old may not be mature enough to know their limitations on drinking and just lowering the age will have a bad cause. Another reason is that if we lower the drinking age we might be contributing to more fatal accidents. Drinking may also allow people to hurt themselves and others. Young adults may have a chance of not knowing their limits. Lowering the drinking age will just make it worse because young adults or teenagers are still under pressure with drugs, depression, violence, etc.

21 year old are more likely to have no limitations on drinking; therefore, it makes it worse if the government would lower it down. According to Mike John who wrote the article, Cons of Lowering Drinking Age,  Underaged Drinking," Lower drinking ages to 16, 17, or 18 like the MLDA [the minimal legal drinking age] in some European countries is inappropriate for US standards because American teens generally start driving at earlier ages and drive more often than their European counterparts. American teens are thus much more likely to drive under the influence of alcohol if the drinking age were lowered in the US."  Since teens are able to drive in America, there is a more likely chance that these teens are capable of drunk driving; which can may a fatal scenario. Teens are allowed to drive at an age much younger than the current MLDA, and because they are so young, they do not have a complete knowledge of what is good or not, or choose to ignore it, because they are so young.  

For teens who drive, lowering the drinking age has a chance of hurting the driver, the passengers, and other people driving near the teen driver, if the teen decides to drive and make the bad decision to drink and drive.  “Between 1970 and 1975, 29 States lowered their drinking ages to 18, 19, or 20. By 1983, safety concerns had led many of these States to reverse course...NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] published an analysis in 1985 and a follow-up in 1989 on...the estimated number of lives saved...The studies found that the target involvements decreased on average by 13 percent in States where the drinking age had been raised” (NHTSA).  Twenty-nine states lowered their drinking ages for less than fifteen years, and changed their MILDA back to the original drinking age: twenty-one.  Thirteen percent less people died in the states when the MLDA was 21 years old, in comparison to the higher amount of people killed when the MLDA was lowered to 18, 19, and 20.