REPORT: Nickelodeon employed multiple CHILD MOLESTERS and PEDOPHILES, including a top producer and one with a prior conviction
04/01/2024 / By Ava Grace
Child and teen-focused television network Nickelodeon has employed or worked with five child molesters, as well as two other people who have been accused of pedophilia.
The criminal activities of the men against children were detailed in the recently released Investigation Discovery documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
One of the most notable figures discussed in the series was Brian Peck, a dialogue coach who was convicted in 2004 for child sexual abuse and sentenced to 16 months in prison. He was notable for molesting Nickelodeon teenage star Drake Bell when he was 15. He was later convicted of distributing child pornography. (Related: EVIL EXPOSED: New documentary reveals the DARK SIDE of children’s shows on Nickelodeon.)
Other sex criminals employed by the children’s television network included Ezell Channel, a production assistant who was convicted of a child sex offense in 2003 for “lewd acts” with a child under 14. He was released on probation less than two years later and hired at Nickelodeon despite his prior conviction.
In 2005, a mother reported Channel to the police after he began spending time with her teenage son and after finding his name on the Megan’s Law sex offender registry website. Later that same year, prosecutors accused Channel of luring a 13- and a 14-year-old into the Nickelodeon studio, showing them pornography and touching them inappropriately. He was convicted and was released from prison in 2010.
Marty Weiss, a talent manager who had clients on top Nickelodeon shows, was convicted for “lewd acts” with a 12-year-old male client. Cody Longo, the star of “Hollywood Heights,” was accused of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl in Colorado in 2019. Longo pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in 2021 and last year he was found dead in his home of alcohol poisoning.
Weiss represented child clients who appeared on popular shows such as Nickelodeon’s “iCarly” and Disney’s “Good Luck Charlie.” One former client told police in 2012 that Weiss had molested him between 30 and 40 times over a three-year period, when the boy was between 11 and 12 years old. Weiss was sentenced in June 2012 to one year in county jail and five years of probation.
Jason Handy was a production assistant who sent photos of himself masturbating to an 11-year-old girl who worked as as an extra on “The Amanda Show.” During a police investigation, law enforcement found that Handy had described himself as a “pedophile, full-blown” in his journal.
Handy pleaded no contest to felony counts of lewd acts with a child, distributing sexually explicit material and a misdemeanor charge of child sexual exploitation. He was sentenced to six years in prison. In 2014, he was charged in North Carolina with indecent liberties with a child and sex offender registry violations. He is currently in federal prison in Virginia and is scheduled for release in 2038.
A Nickelodeon spokesperson said it “investigates all formal complaints” and is committed to “fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct.”
Mind-blowing revelations surrounding Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider
The revelations uncovered from the “Quiet on Set” documentary shed new light onto the pervasive, toxic culture surrounding kid’s television and the sexual and psychological abuse suffered by child stars in the 1990s and 2000s. On top of this is the rampant misogyny and racism of many Nickelodeon executives.
At its heart was the once-lauded producer Dan Schneider, a man hailed as the “Norman Lear of children’s television” for his creation of hit programs such as “iCarly,” “Drake & Josh,” “Zoey 101” and “Victorious.”
Schneider was fired in 2018 when the first allegations regarding to his on-set behavior came to light. Six years after he was fired, in the wake of the film’s release, Schneider issued an apology on YouTube, where he said sorry to those he offended during the quarter-century he spent at Nickelodeon as the network’s undisputed – and untouchable – commander of kids’ television. He promised to do better in the future.
To the victims, some of whom fell prey to on-set pedophiles, and whose trauma evolved into anxiety, depression, alcoholism and mental breakdowns as they grew older, Schneider’s apology isn’t enough. They are seeking changes and accountability to the entire industry that has turned a blind eye to predatory behavior.
“A lot of the people that are talked about in the documentary, and the networks we’re talking about, are still in existence, they’re still engaged in the same programming, so I would hope things will change, that it will overhaul how Nickelodeon works,” said Scaachi Koul, a popular-culture journalist and consultant for “Quiet on Set.”
“Fundamentally I would hope it makes them fully re-investigate how they employ these kids. I’m realistic, they’re not going to say we’re going to kill this programming, but I hope it will force them to reorganize how they do it,” added Koul. “There are a lot of people involved in the story who should have a conversation with themselves about what they could have done, what they failed to do. When it comes to children, you should be able to ask for accountability forever. Until you get it.”
The documentary is not the first to question Schneider’s closeness with young cast members, such as Amanda Bynes, with whom he was filmed sharing a hot tub with when she was 13 and in a bikini, or the sexualized nature of jokes he had children perform.
Child safety activist Gabe Hoffman said the issue of hiring pedophiles in Hollywood persists. “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.”
Watch this report detailing the sexual abuse suffered by actor Drake Bell.
This video is from the SecureLife channel on Brighteon.com.
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Tagged Under:
child molesters, child pornography, crime, criminals, Dan Schneider, Drake Bell, Nickelodeon, pedophiles, Pedophilia, predators, Sex Crimes, sex offenders, sexual abuse, television
This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author
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