'Guard children against offensive teledramas'

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Labour Minister Gamini Lokuge has called upon over 8.2 million adults to prevent young children watching local Sinhala teledramas and foreign films that could increase the incidence of child abuse in various parts of the country.

The Minister also advised local film and teledrama directors to be more cautious when producing films that would tarnish the private lives of artistes, especially film actresses.

Minister Lokuge told the Sunday Observer that a recent Sinhala teledrama telecast on a local television channel reflected offensive scenes of popular Sinhala actresses and elders and children could not watch such films together.

He said it was the duty of officials to ban such films being screened on television and in cinemas to prevent youth from going astray.

"The increasing number of child abuse cases in the country is an example of this situation", he said.

Film producers were free to air their views for their survival, but everybody knows that such low quality teledramas and films pollute the minds of youngsters. Minister Lokuge also deplored that over 50 cases of child abuse had been reported from different parts of the country during the past few months.