Sun, Sex and Disgraceful Parenting

Since it first aired last year, I’ve become slightly obsessed with  the BBC3 show Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents. For anyone that hasn’t seen it, the programme follows groups of teenagers on clubbing holidays, films their drunken antics and then plays the footage back to their parents, who, unbeknown to their kids, have been stalking them all week from a relatively safe distance. Whilst I wholeheartedly agree that this setup is a TV goldmine, I end up launching into the same old rant every single week...how dare those parents invade their child’s privacy to that degree?

Invariably, each episode begins with the teenagers proudly explaining to the cameras how this holiday is going to provide them with some much needed independence and escapism, and how they’re pretty sure their parents would not want to see what they are about to get up to. The parents, meanwhile, rattle on about how they’re pretty sure that their darling son or daughter wouldn’t dream of getting drunk or having casual sex on holiday, and that they’re only taking part in the programme to ‘improve our relationship’, or to ‘gain a better understanding’ of their child. 

Predictably, the minute the teens touch down in Malia, Kavos, Ibiza or whichever typical 18-30s destination the show is featuring that week, the drinking begins, and standard holiday behaviour ensues. The following day the parents sit and gawp at footage of their sons and daughters groping strangers, being sick, exposing themselves, and eventually tottering home with an equally drunk member of the opposite sex. Which begs the question: why, oh why, would any parent want to put themselves through that? Surely, deep down, they must have known what their kids would be getting up to on their first mates holiday – because they probably did it all themselves thirty years ago. 

I simply cannot comprehend how any good can come of this process. The teens embarked on holiday believing that this was their first slice of freedom and independence, only to be dragged immediately back down by prying parents who clearly aren’t ready to accept that their children are children no longer. Everyone featured on Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents is over the age of eighteen, which, last time I checked, makes them all adults. If they want to go out, get smashed and have a good time, what right do their parents have to stop them? By age eighteen we are each entitled to our own life, and if we don’t wish to share the intimate details with our parents – let alone millions of BBC3 viewers – then why should we? One mother on this series of SS&SP entered her son’s hotel room, and checked his bedclothes for semen stains. In what world does she think that this is acceptable behaviour, and not a horrendous breach of her son’s privacy? The whole concept of the show makes me extremely uncomfortable. Which is probably why I’m already looking forward to  next week’s episode.