Former child star, Alexa Nikolas, protested in front of Nickelodeon studios over child mistreatment. Nikolas starred on the Nickelodeon TV show Zoey 101 as Nicole Bristow for three years. She is the second actress in recent days to speak out against Nickelodeon and to detail traumatic experiences working for the studio as a minor. Her allegations followed closely on the heels of the release of iCarly.
Since her stint on Nickelodeon, Nikolas has turned to activism, forming an organization called Eat Predators, which advocates for survivors of sexual abuse. Previously, the organization had gathered and protested outside of several major music companies. Their aim is to raise awareness of the prevalence of abuse in the music industry since it is an industry they feel that the #MeToo movement largely glossed over. Nikolas herself has been open about her experiences as an abuse survivor and is now using her organization to blow the whistle on companies covering up abuse. Her organization is very much concerned about the entertainment industry as whole, thus, setting its sights on Nickelodeon most recently.
Nikolas took to Instagram to share a video showing her and other protestors gathered outside of Nickelodeon studios to protest child sexual abuse. In the video, she holds a sign reading, "Nickelodeon didn't protect me." Other protests bear signs reading, "How many NDAs?" "How many children?" and "Protect children, not predators." Even more jarring, though, were the numerous signs with photos and names on them - Dan Schneider, Fred Savage, Ezel Channel, Brian Peck, and many more - all of whom are convicted, or alleged, predators who worked on Nickelodeon. Check out Nikolas' video below:
Nikolas' protests succeeds in asking some critical questions of Nickelodeon that certainly do need answers. One bombshell that McCurdy dropped in her memoir, was Nickelodeon's attempt to pay her $300,000 in "hush money." This has raised the question of how many more potential victims received hush money or signed NDAs, successfully covering up Nickelodeon's wrongs. Now that both Nikolas and McCurdy have detailed trauma on the set of Nickelodeon, it certainly seems to point to a deeper problem within the studio. The question is just how deep it actually runs and how many victims there really are. Nikolas also used her protest to give a gentle reminder to survivors that their time to speak out and get justice may be, sadly, running out. Hopefully, her protest can encourage others to come forward, knowing that they have an advocate.
It remains to be seen what the impact of Nikolas' protest will be, but it's encouraging that she is trying to get justice for the victims of the studio. The trauma, humiliations, injustices, and predatory behavior that both Nikolas and McCurdy have detailed is simply unacceptable. What hits hardest, though, is Nikolas' heartbreaking statement that Nickelodeon didn't protect her. She was a vulnerable child, brought into Nickelodeon studios so they could build their success off her talent, and, yet, they seemingly cared more about enabling and protecting predators than about protecting her. Just how much Nickelodeon enabled or protected predators is unknown, but Nikolas' protest is the first step in demanding both answers and justice from the studio.
Source: Alexa Nikolas