I’m sure it can’t have just been me who felt a bit uncomfortable during that phase of TikTok. Make no mistake, I’m a huge fan of the Harry Potter franchise, but the collective romanticising of 16- and 17-year-olds has really got to stop (why am I even writing this…?) I am of course talking about what became known as ‘Draco Malfoy TikTok.’ This is where creators would make cinematic edits of the actors in the Harry Potter films, notably Tom Felton, who played Potter’s childhood nemesis Draco Malfoy, and ‘the boy who lived’ himself, portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe. The selection certain images or clips from the films set to the current trending TikTok sounds, this somewhat interactive new spin on fanfiction swept through our phones and regretfully, our minds.
So let’s get the facts right here. Tom Felton was just about 18 by the time they started filming for The Order of the Phoenix, meaning that any footage before the 5th film, was portraying (in legal terms) a child. A few years younger than his on-screen enemy, Daniel Radcliffe only turned 18 a couple of months before the filming began on The Half-Blood Prince, meaning he only strictly came of age after the first 5 films. Additionally, we should mention Robert Pattinson, who gained most of his fame and attention from playing Edward Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series, but who previously stole the hearts of many in his short-lived (touchy spot) portrayal of the tragic Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Principal photography for the film began on May 4th 2004, suggesting that Pattinson, born on 13th May 1986, perhaps celebrated his 18th birthday on set. While we have no idea which scenes were filmed when, and thus no way of knowing if Pattinson was of age in all of his scenes, this is cutting it a bit fine, and considering the nature of the school-based fantasy series, it might be best to err on the side of caution with this one and bring these suggestive edits to a grinding halt.
Some of these edits particularly ones in the ‘P.O.V’ trend – where the creator edits clips of themselves into famous HP scenes with their chosen witch or wizard, are well executed and clearly require a great deal of skill and time, and are becoming more and more common with all this spare time we seem to have on our hands. Their Wattpad-esque fantasies are played out in a short but often realistic video not only aimed to entertain a massive potential audience, but also to allow them to live out a dream of perhaps being alone in the Room of Requirement with Draco, or the Hufflepuff common room with Cedric. For me, this is not impressive, it makes it all a bit creepier.
This issue begs the question – who is making these edits, and are the creators themselves over the (UK and US) legal age of consent? In July 2020, TikTok disclosed that a third of its daily users in the US were 14 years old or younger, but as of November 2020, an impressive 41% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24. It’s impossible (or at least, a big job) to measure the ages of every single creator on TikTok, including the ones making ‘steamy’ edits of underage children, but I’d argue that the age of the creator is partially irrelevant – 26% of TikTok’s global audience are between 18 and 24, and I, as included in this statistic do not feel comfortable with these videos popping up on my FYP every day. Disclaimer – I am well aware of the way the TikTok algorithm works (showing you more of the type of content you engage with), but if something becomes a popular trend, it circulates round no matter what. The bottom line is, the content shouldn’t be created in the first place – stop romanticising children, it’s weird.
Sadly, this is not the first example of this phenomenon that everyone just seems to be allowing to happen, and it certainly won’t be the last. Take for example the talented and charismatic Millie Bobby Brown, who rose to fame portraying Eleven in the award-winning Netflix original series, Stranger Things. Not only is 16-year-old Brown’s ‘love-life’ speculated far too much for our liking, but she receives, as is often in the case for celebrities, excessive comments about her appearance, her sophisticated fashion sense and how she is ‘mature for her age’. While this comment could be taken as a compliment, it doesn’t sit right with me. Friendships between celebrities are to be expected, but the rumoured text message conversations between Brown and the singer, Drake, suggest something more sinister. It is hard to shake off the worry that as soon as the Enola Holmes star turns 18, the inappropriate remarks will ramp up and some other high-profile adults may start to make their advances… *shudder*.
I’m not sure exactly why or how this strange lapse of judgement took place, where it was collectively decided that minors could be placed in this sphere of discussion, but sadly, the list of these teenage ‘fantasies’ is long, ranging from Billie Eilish to Greta Thunberg to young Natalie Portman. It seems as soon as a talented young artist/actor enters the public eye, they are free game for speculation and judgment. A tale as old as time, we can’t do much to battle this except to remind those who do that it is not acceptable to sexualise anyone who is underage, including celebrities. At the very least, stop making videos of 13-year-olds in fictional uniforms, who are rolling their eyes or biting their lip or just saying their lines, and captioning it ‘sexy’ – it’s really, really weird.