‘Love Island stars are not role models!’ Children as young as eight are playing the ITV show in school playground by ‘rating each other’s looks and pairing up the best matches’, primary head warns
- Aled Rees wrote to parents after discovering children were watching the show
- Pupils were ‘rating each other on their looks to see who’d be the best match’
- Students aged eight and nine in Llandeilo are ‘getting upset in the playground’
A headmaster has slammed parents for allowing their children to watch Love Island after he found youngsters as young as eight replicating scenes from the controversial ITV2 show.
Aled Rees, headteacher at Teilo Sant school in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, penned a furious letter to parents after discovering children were staying up until 10pm to secretly watch the ITV2 show.
Pupils have been getting upset in the playground after ‘rating each other based on their looks to see who would be the best match’ and and ‘coupling up’ together.
Mr Rees has now sent a letter to parents in the 220-pupil school to say the contestants are ‘no role models for our children’, warning the show is impacting children’s behaviour and teachers ‘are the ones that have to pick up the pieces’.
He added: ‘I would encourage you to consider whether the programme, language and sexual nature is a thing that you wish your children to see, hear and emulate.’
Children have been ‘secretly’ watching Love Island then replicating it in the playground. Pictured, contestants Curtis Pritchard and hid former love interest Amy Hart, who made an emotional exit from the show this week amid concerns for her mental health
The headteacher has now sent a letter to parents in the 220-pupil school to say the contestants are ‘no role models for our children.’
Pupils have been getting upset in the playground of Teilo Sant school in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire after ‘rating each other based on their looks to see who would be the best match’
Love Island has been marred by controversy with critics raising for fears for contestants’ mental health in the wake of leaving the Majorcan villa.
In less than one year two former stars of the show – Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon, who were aged 26 and 32 respectively – took their own lives.
This week, contestant Amy Hart, a 26-year-old flight attendant, made an emotional departure amid concerns raised by fans after she had her ‘heart broken’ by love interest Curtis Pritchard.
Ofcom has also been flooded by complaints from viewers, relating largely to the ‘predatory’ behaviour of model Maura Higgins.
The letter sent by the headteacher to parents said: ‘I am of the opinion that primary school pupils aren’t mature enough to watch a programme of this nature where a person’s appearance is more important than their personality.’
Mr Rees said the school had a ‘number of concerns’ about children watching Love Island after Year 4 pupils aged eight and nine were seen getting upset by name calling due to the game.
He said: ‘Firstly the show doesn’t air until 9pm and some of them were watching it at that time.
‘Others were watching it on catch up and it was the content that was the issue in as much as it was impacting then on their behaviour in school.
‘There was inappropriate language, name calling based on the looks of other individuals and they were playing a game where they were pairing individuals together based on their looks.’
Simone, a parent to two daughters aged eight and 10 at the school, said she supported the letter.
She said: ‘It is something we have said to the children – it is not appropriate for them to watch.
‘It has an adult theme.’
Mr Rees added: ‘As a school we need to inform parents that sometimes what the children do outside the school impacts on their behaviour in school.
‘We are the ones then that have to pick up the pieces.
‘When we have seen pupils that are upset by the name calling and the games that have spawned from the programme then I think we can stand by our decision.’
Mr Rees said the school had a ‘number of concerns’ about children watching Love Island
Year 4 pupils aged eight and nine were seen getting upset by name calling in their ‘Love Island game’. Pictured, contestants on the show waiting to see if they will be picked by one of the boys
The programme sees young singletons vying for the attention of their peers and ‘coupling up’ with one another in a bid to win £50,000
Another mother said: ‘Although it’s not as explicit as come people think it is, it can be very suggestive.’
Love Island airs at 9pm on ITV2 and features a string of young singletons looking for love in Majorca. The winning couple voted for by the public then scoop a £50,000 prize.