A Line Between Acting and Child Abuse?

Note: I was really tired and cranky when I wrote this, but I thought it was an interesting topic. Bare with the incohesive state of this entry ... I'll do better next time, promise.

I'm a firm believer that pushing your own political and religious belief on your children is child abuse (note emphasis). They should be taught about different perspectives and most importantly how to think for themselves, critically, about issues that they will come to make decisions about later in life.

There are no "Christian Children" or "Muslim Children," they are far too young to be able to make decisions on such philosophical matters. There are only "Children of Christian Parents" or "Children of Muslim Parents."

This all, of course, applies to me, too. I can't tell my children that atheism is absolute. I can only tell them what I believe, teach they to think critically with reason, logic, and science and allow them to step into their own. Why am I bringing this up? Well, on Reason Magazine's Hit & Run (a Libertarian blog) there is some discussion going on about this.

A little girl sits in front of a camera is gives a speech, one I feel passionately in favor of. It denounces the idea of music, video games being the cause of violence and advocates an anti-religious viewpoint. This was pretty much directed at Bill O'Reilly, and he was kind enough to respond. The view on O'Reilly's show was that not only does this further prove that machines are going to take over the world ala The Terminator series (maybe a reason to vote for Arnold?) this constitutes child abuse because the child isn't old enough to understand the implications of her statements.

Is she acting? The speech is far too eloquent for a seven or eight year and obviously scripted. The editing is fast paced and professional, with many varieties of shots. Whoever made this (I have yet to look into it) knows what they're doing. So, if this is a video project, does this child saying a speech for which she has no reasonable understanding of it's implications constitute child abuse or is this merely an acting gig? Is hiring child actors for serious dramatic roles intended for an adult audience child abuse?

Update: I just looked on YouTube and I seem to be right, I quote (caps not mine):

OFFICIAL STATEMENT: THIS VIDEO FEATURES A TALENTED YOUNG ACTRESS PLAYING A FICTITIOUS CHARACTER. IT IS A COMMERCIAL FOR THE BAND 'THE BASTARD FAIRIES' AND DIRECTED BY AN AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKING TEAM.

For the sake of it, here is the video (is it just me or am I posting a lot of video stuff lately? Ah hell, YouTube is awesome ... anyway, back to it)

Is this child really being taught dogmatically these things, or is she an actor? If she is taught these things dogmatically, I'd say yes, it constitutes child abuse. But having a child read out and act a script is acting. I don't see any problem with that. There is obvious dramatic and ironic effect at work here. It also stirs a healthy bit of controversy. Some thirty year old philosopher can say all he wants in front of a video camera but he'll get a hard time getting people to listen. Stick an eight year old up there, hand her a script and suddenly you're on the O'Reilly Factor.

Oh, I think I'll just link to O'Reilly's video this time. I'm sick of his face on my blog. Here, but It's pretty much the usual crap.