Darn soap awards :(

[Lilyput]

Just a friendly warning to anybody who hasn't watched yet.

Was slightly blind sided by the soap awards last night. Have a tradition with my OH where we sit and watch the soap awards and take the mickey a little bit, started when I was pregnant with eldest and we were at Butlins with only four channels. Sorry for rambling but I knew there was an abuse story in Emmerdale but there were many controversial story lines in other soaps, so didn't think it would come up that much.

Anyway the Emmerdale CSA story line won nearly every darn award. They showed repeated clips, of victim giving statement, guilty verdict etc. So if you've avoided Emmerdale cos your not in the place to watch, definitely avoid this years soap awards guys.

[Rights Fighter]

If you think about it, many teenagers or youngsters watch these soaps avidly. Remember when Michael le Vell got his NG verdicts and remember William Roache's case, where members of the public commented on news stories

"Kevin cheated on Sally so I think he's guilty"

"Ken Barlow was always cheating on Deirdre so I think he's guilty".....

They cannot distinguish between fact and fantasy. Many of the kids watching the soap awards will be thinking "Yayyy look at all the attention I would get......."

I know for a fact that some false accusers use storylines from soaps (the most memorable being the Kat Slater story) almost word for word in their interviews.....

I know the writers think that they are bringing the issues to the public's attention, but the fact of the matter is, the public already know about it.

It's time storylines were written about false allegations and they should go on for weeks on end, as did the Aaron storyline. On the few occasions there has been such a story it's lasted all of one, or possibly two episodes. That's not going to make it memorable......

[Lilyput]

The hollyoaks one angers me so much. Even though Cleo is a genuine victim her behaviour would make it impossible for the police to convict him surely. He'll clearly be found guilty in the coming weeks and every FA will think it's perfectly okay to initiate contact with the person they've accused as Cleo did it and Pete still got done.

So in cases where the FA is a scorned ex, they'll be harassed as well as accused wish they'd be aware of the damage these story lines cause.