An eight-year-old girl gets down on all fours and wiggles her rear from the stage of a packed club, egged on by a rowdy crowd of revellers.
An 14-year-old boy dances with a woman dressed as a teacher, surrounded by a group of young teen girls who girate in revealing miniskirts. A boy aged 12, draped by women thrusting their hips in G-string bikinis, raps: 'Get ready young girl, I know you like it, go shimmying down...'
In most parts of the world, such disturbing videos would provoke a national outcry - and arrests.
But in Brazil the children portrayed in these music clips are not seen as victims to be protected, but as celebrities. Each enjoys huge success, millions of online hits, and have hundreds of thousands of fans.
Abreu responded in a recorded video rant: 'I think you are a band of bigots, who want to finish
with funk. Funk is allowing a lot of poor people the right to have money, to buy a car, a good house, to buy a gold chain which cost 25,000 reals (£5,000), like this one, which you jealous people aren't able to buy yourselves.
'You say I'm a paedophile, but what is paedophilia? You are the paedophiles, because you are seeing sensuality in an eight-year-old child. You should be saying, that's so cute, because that's what it is.'
Amid a growing calls for action, Sao Paulo's prosecution service have now launched an investigation into the activities of child funk stars, including whether their parents and managers are breaking child welfare laws.
Prosecutor Eduardo Dias de Souza Ferreira said the explicit content of the songs 'bruise the dignity of children and adolescents.'
He said: 'Brazil is democratic, but it's not a whorehouse. If it is understood that there is pornography in the songs, there will be punishment. Social network sites will also be told to change the way the content is presented. With regard to the artist agencies, if they are proved to be guilty, we will look at their revenues to issue fines as well.'
But few believe firm enough action will actually be taken to stem child funk's increasing popularity, especially as banning orders will have to be issued by each judge in municipalities where shows are taking place.
And while some child funkeiros have had videos or fanpages removed from the internet, new ones appear almost as soon as they are taken down.
0 comments :
Post a Comment