The BBC has been criticised for screening a ‘sick’ EastEnders plot about a girl who gets to be pregnant at just 12.
Teens have been gripped by the storyline in which Lily Slater discovers she is expecting and decides to have the toddler – with tens of millions watching clips on the social media application TikTok.
In the soap, Lily’s mother Stacey, performed by Lacey Turner, encourages the schoolgirl to preserve her toddler, when the mom and dad of the father – who is also 12 – attempt to get her to have an abortion.
Lily, portrayed by Lillia Turner, agrees to a termination, but improvements her intellect just before she is admitted to medical center.
Sources close to EastEnders say the extraordinary scenes will keep on with the youngster having the infant.
EastEnders schoolgirl Lily Slater, 12, with her mum Stacey
Lily with Ricky Mitchell, the 12-yr-old father of her toddler
On the other hand, a person TikTok user stated: ‘Twelve is just too youthful, it is ill. While teenager being pregnant is perfectly known the total of pre-teen pregnancies in the Uk a calendar year could almost certainly be counted on one hand.’
Another critic posted, ‘Kids obtaining kids’, though a third extra: ‘Lily Slater is 12 – why is EastEnders not generating her have an abortion?’
Extra than 1.4 million watched a scene on TikTok of Lily’s infant scan, with some viewers observing from as significantly absent as New Zealand.
Younger admirers were being also fascinated to come across out who the father was, with much more than a million viewing footage of Lily revealing it was Ricky Mitchell, who is played by teenager actor Frankie Day.
The BBC has been putting the episodes on its iPlayer services at 9am on the day they are screened alternatively of waiting for their terrestrial Television set slots in the evening.
One particular mother or father told The Mail on Sunday how her son and a team of his good friends skipped classes to look at episodes of the drama in the school bathrooms.
Nonetheless, though several viewers have criticised the strategy of Lily maintaining her newborn, Andrea Williams, chief govt of the campaign group Christian Problem, backed the BBC’s anti-termination stance.
She stated: ‘EastEnders is performing true-existence drama.
Lily’s decision is not just about her overall body but about the human body of the toddler she is carrying – and it is having the country to think about that. Amazing, profound, lifestyle-shaking things.’
In 2000, the soap’s ITV rival Coronation Road arrived below scrutiny for scenes in which Sarah-Louise Platt, played by Tina O’Brien, became a mother at 13.
The show’s bosses were being forced to protect the plot and deny accusations that it was exploitative.
They reported: ‘It is a truth that Britain has Europe’s greatest teenage being pregnant figures, and Coronation Street is reflecting that and telling the story of a person young lady.’
In 2021, it was described that an 11-12 months-aged girl gave beginning in Britain right after turning out to be pregnant when she was ten. Britain’s youngest mom was beforehand Tressa Middleton, from Scotland, who experienced her baby at 12 in 2006. But it was taken into care immediately after she admitted it was conceived when she was raped by her brother, who was then jailed.
