While young and aspiring fashion models are rarely known to shy away from publicity and recognition, last night's episode of ABC's new Nightline Prime (Sat., 3/29/14) may have revealed personal information that most young girls do not want to divulge to the entire world - information that could theoretically jeopardize their safety.
The episode was about the cut-throat world of young, aspiring models and how model scouts in Brazil are on the hunt for the "next top model," ala Gisele Bundchen and Alessandra Ambrosio, two Brazil natives.
Near the end of the show, as the program featured an enormous casting event for aspiring models in front of Brazil's leading talent scouts, the camera panned and focused on a scout's list of attendees. Shockingly, the email addresses and birth dates of over a dozen girls - some as young as 14 - were clearly legible.
While the column featuring the names of the aspiring models was not fully shown, many email addresses were in the form of something similar to <first name>.<last name> @ hotmail.com, which, along with the displayed birth date, made the identities of many young girls pretty clear.
[See a redacted screenshot of the shown list.]
And while such information is fine in the possession of a reputable talent agent, it is hard to imagine any parent being comfortable with such personal information being broadcast into households all over the world to millions of people, especially in this unpredictable and precarious day and age.
Let's hope that ABC immediately notifies all of the pertinent models and their families that personal information may have been compromised, so these kids and their parents can be on guard to protect themselves and take any necessary remedial measures.
- Dave Pierre is the author of two books, including, Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church. He is also the creator and author of TheMediaReport.com, which examines the media's coverage of the Catholic Church sex abuse story. Dave Pierre is a contributing writer to NewsBusters.
