This week’s TV program entitled “Through the Magnifying Glass of Psychology”, which took place under the moderatorship of EMU Arts and Sciences Faculty, Psychology Department academic staff member Assist. Prof. Dr. Fatih Bayraktar, hosted EMU Education Faculty Educational Sciences academic staff member, social services specialist and EMU Community Involvement Center executive board member Barış Başel.
During the program, Barış Başel talked about child beauty contests and their negative effects on the psychological development of the children. Başel stated that contests as such should be viewed as child exploitation and evaluated accordingly. Talking about the transformation in the society, Başel also put forth that there is a big trend towards fascist aesthetics in today’s world. Western based media imposes different brands, logos, and life styles on people including the underaged children. Giving various examples on the issue, Başel added that female children would like to have a zero figure like barbie dolls and boys try to look like the male figures displayed on the cover pages of magazines..
Başel also stated the existence of a separate ministry on ‘Social Media” in France which has the target of protecting children from exploitations as such. Başel also talked about the child beauty contest in TRNC which was cancelled due to intensive protests and stated that the government should take action against similar organisations. Başel added that those children participating in beauty contests may go through serious traumas and advised that parents should receive support from psychiatrics, if and when needed.
During the program, Assist. Prof. Dr. Fatih Bayraktar advised that the society should be educated to be more aware on similar issues and added that the main problem is the families’ ignorance on what is child exploitation and what isn’t.