Matilda’s Mara Wilson On Childhood Sexual Exploitation<\/p>\n
Mara Wilson<\/a> was just five years old when she became a globally recognized movie star back in the \u201890s, starring in films like Miracle on 34th Street, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Matilda throughout her childhood.<\/p>\n And in more recent years, the former child star has been incredibly open about the downsides of becoming famous at such a young age, and has shared disturbing insight into her personal experience in a bid to raise awareness and express her support for emerging young celebrities, including Millie Bobby Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n For reference, Millie was 11 years old when she made her debut in Stranger Things back in 2016.<\/p>\n Penning an essay for Elle<\/a> in 2017, Mara wrote: \u201cEven before I was out of middle school, I had been featured on foot fetish websites, photoshopped into child porn, and received all kinds of letters and messages online from grown men.\u201d<\/p>\n So, when Millie hit the big time in Stranger Things, Mara admitted that she found herself taking an interest in how she was being treated. She wrote: \u201cI wasn\u2019t worried about her. Not at first. It\u2019s my nature to worry about child actors. Then Millie Bobby Brown turned 13. Last week, I saw a photo of her on Twitter, dressed up for a premiere. I thought she looked like a teenage girl. The caption, however, read that, at 13, she \u2018just grew up in front of our eyes.\u2019 It had been tweeted by a grown man.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, in 2021, Mara penned an emotional op-ed for the New York Times<\/a>, where she recalled being sexualized at a young age<\/a>. \u201cPeople had been asking me, \u2018Do you have a boyfriend?\u2019 in interviews since I was 6,\u201d she wrote. \u201cReporters asked me who I thought the sexiest actor was and about Hugh Grant’s arrest for soliciting a prostitute.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years later, in 2023, Mara had a raw conversation with the Guardian<\/a>, opening up some more about being \u201csexualized\u201d by the public \u2014 despite always feeling \u201csafe\u201d on movie sets. \u201cI was still sexualized,\u201d she said. \u201cI had people sending me inappropriate letters and posting things about me online.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI made the mistake of Googling myself when I was 12 and saw things that I couldn\u2019t unsee,\u201d Mara recalled, with the journalist noting that photos of her face had been edited onto other girls\u2019 bodies on porn sites, replicating child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n And Mara, now 38, has now opened up some more about these manipulated images in a new essay for the Guardian<\/a>, where she expressed her growing fear surrounding AI, and how it is putting children of today in danger. The essay comes shortly after X faced fierce backlash when its AI tool, Grok, was exposed for creating indecent images<\/a> of users without their consent.<\/p>\n \u201cI was sexually exploited by strangers,\u201d Mara writes in her latest piece. \u201cFrom ages five to 13, I was a child actor. And while as of late we\u2019ve heard many horror stories about the abusive things that happened to child actors behind the scenes, I always felt safe while filming\u2026 The only way show business did endanger me was by putting me in the public eye. Any cruelty and exploitation I received as a child actor was at the hands of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBefore I was even in high school, my image had been used for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). I\u2019d been featured on fetish websites and Photoshopped into pornography,\u201d she recalls. \u201cGrown men sent me creepy letters. I wasn\u2019t a beautiful girl \u2013 my awkward age lasted from about age 10 to about 25 \u2013 and I acted almost exclusively in family-friendly movies. But I was a public figure, so I was accessible. That\u2019s what child sexual predators look for: access. And nothing made me more accessible than the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter that those images \u2018weren\u2019t me\u2019,\u201d Mara went on. \u201cOr that the fetish sites were \u2018technically\u2019 legal. It was a painful, violating experience; a living nightmare I hoped no other child would have to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n In her essay, Mara goes in-depth about how these images are allowed to be created, and what needs to be done in order to make it stop, and for children to be protected. She writes: \u201cWe need to be demanding legislation and technological safeguards. We also need to examine our own actions: nobody wants to think that if they share photos of their child, those images could end up in CSAM. But it is a risk, one that parents need to protect their young children from, and warn their older children about.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf our obsession with Stranger Danger showed anything, it\u2019s that most of us want to prevent child endangerment and harassment,\u201d she concludes. \u201cIt\u2019s time to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n You can read Mara\u2019s full article here<\/a> \u2014 let me know your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline<\/a> at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here<\/a>. <\/p>\n