A 10-year-old girl from North Carolina publicly shamed the Disney Channel after the network told her thanking God qualified as profanity on its website. Lilly Anderson went online on her birthday to fill out Disney’s questionnaire about all the things she is thankful for. When Lilly responded saying God, her church, her family and friends, the website refused to accept her answer. Instead, a message, asking her to be nice, popped up on the screen.
“Please be nice!” it read.
Confused and baffled, Lilly summoned her mother to find a solution to the problem. The family went on to try out different words, before concluding God was the word being precluded.
“It was Lilly’s idea alone to include God in her post,” said her mother Julie. “As a matter of fact, she was in another room from me, and she came and got me when it wouldn’t allow her to post. … We’ve always told her that inevitably there would come a day when she would be discriminated against for her faith, but we never thought Disney would be the source.”
A few days, later, Lilly and her mother appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss the issue.
“They made me feel a little bit bad because I couldn’t write it, ’cause God’s the reason that we have all the stuff that we have,” Lilly told program host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
Her mother went on to say that she fears those who have faith or believe in God may be made to feel ashamed by the increasing number of peers who do not.
“I just don’t want children to feel like there’s something wrong or there’s something they should be ashamed of in sharing their faith with their peers,” said Julie.
Disney justified their blocking of God by saying too many people use profanity along with the word, which is why they have programmed for all of those profanities, including God, to be disallowed on their website.
“Because so many people attempt to abuse the system and use the word ‘God’ in conjunction with profanity, in an abundance of caution, our system is forced to catch and prevent any use of the word on our website,” they said.
Julie responded to Disney’s clarification, saying she understands what the network is trying to curtail but children should not be told not to be thankful for God.
“A big red message that tells a child that it’s not nice to be thankful for God might not be the best way to handle that. … I want my daughter, and all children of faith, to know that it is okay to share God and Jesus with their peers,” Julie said. “I want her to know that she doesn’t have to be silent about her faith. I want her to be strong and soldier on.”
Photo Credits: Fanpop
