(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The recent court records revealed that Nickelodeon employed or worked with five child molesters as well as two other people who were accused of pedophilia.
The channel was infiltrated by predators who saw the power it gave them as a way to get close to their victims, child safety activists told the Daily Mail.
Two of the offenders were highlighted in a new HBO documentary, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, about child abuse on the channel.
One of those pedophiles was former Nickelodeon dialogue coach and actor Brian Peck, who molested child star Drake Bell when he was 15.
Another one was Dan Schneider, a controversial producer of several successful kids’ shows on Nickelodeon, who was constantly inserting sexually suggestive scenes, which usually involved someone’s feet — a well-known fascination of Schneider.
However, legal records indicated that convicted and accused pedophiles’ prior involvement with the channel was far more extensive than what was shown in the documentary.
Among the molesters are Jason Handy, a Nickelodeon production assistant who had sexual contact with a nine-year-old girl, and Ezell Channel, who was hired as a production assistant at the cable channel after a child sex offense conviction and then arrested for sexually assaulting an underage teen at the studio.
Other pedophiles are Marty Weiss, a talent manager who placed clients on top Nickelodeon shows and was later convicted for “lewd acts” with a 12-year-old male client, and Cody Longo, the late star of TeenNick 2012 show Hollywood Heights who was accused of sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl in Colorado in 2019 and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge two years later.
There were also civil claims and public allegations that have been made against two other people who were close to the channel.
The first one was former Nickelodeon adult performer Joby Harte who was found liable for repeatedly sexually abusing Disney star and Forever In Your Mind boyband member Ricky Garcia.
The second person was John Kricfalusi, the creator of the Nickelodeon show Ren & Stimpy, who was accused of sexual misconduct with two teenage girls he employed.
“Convicted pedophiles still get hired in Hollywood today. Sex offenders worked with children at Nickelodeon, and unless the industry makes changes, more children in Hollywood will end up getting abused,” Gabe Hoffman, a child safety activist, said.
Additionally, even though California passed a law in 2012 to prevent convicted pedophiles from working with child actors by requiring background checks and permits, it was revealed that the law is just ignored.
“Investigations have demonstrated this important law is mostly ignored by Hollywood, and state and local law enforcement appear to have little interest in enforcing it,” Hoffman added.
