Dear A&E Television Network:
We were appalled to hear about your upcoming “reality” television series entitled “8 Minutes,” in which police-officer-turned-minister, Kevin Brown, deploys deceptive tactics to lure sex workers into a hotel room and then tries to convince them to leave their profession.
The concept and implementation of the show are troubling for a number of reasons. First, its deception treats these women as if they are not full human beings, worthy of respect and the right to make their own fully-informed decisions. You cannot have secured their consent to be filmed prior to luring them into the rooms, and this poses several ethical and legal concerns, while treating them like meat for mass consumption by TV audiences.
Second, you are literally putting their lives in danger. If they are being trafficked, this entire situation places them in danger of violence and abuse from those who are trafficking them. Not only that, but you are engaging them in an unwanted situation, and therefore your show is abusive in its own way. You are coercing these women into a situation they did not ask for, which is a form of trafficking for the purpose of television entertainment. Shame on you.
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