page_title: Kids Can Say No!
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Kids Can Say No! / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: front elevation of the Barbara Speake Stage School, East Acton Lane, Acton, London, United Kingdom
context_page_description: Kids Can Say No!, stylized as Kids Can Say No, is a 1985 British short educational film produced and directed by Jessica Skippon and written by Anita Bennett. It is intended to teach children between ages five and eight how to avoid situations where they might be sexually abused, how to escape such situations, and how to get help if they are abused. In the film, Australian celebrity Rolf Harris is in a park with a group of four children and tells them about proper and improper physical intimacy, which he calls "yes" and "no" feelings. The film has four role-playing scenes in which children encounter paedophiles, with Harris and the children discussing each scene.
  Harris said that he came up with the idea for the film on a 1982 Canadian tour when he saw Vancouver's Green Thumb Theatre production of Feeling Yes, Feeling No, a play about child sexual abuse. Kids Can Say No!, released in October 1985 on VHS in the United Kingdom, was the first British children's film about sexual abuse and was purchased by police forces, educational institutions, and libraries across Europe.
context_section_description: Kids Can Say No! is a twenty-minute British short educational film intended to teach children about sexual abuse. Harris said he was naive about the subject and was motivated to make the film by a female teacher who told him that, when she spoke to her students about abuse, a traumatised girl ran out of the room; the girl later disclosed that she was being abused by a family member. According to Harris, he came up with the idea for the film on a 1982 Canadian tour when he saw Vancouver's Green Thumb Theatre production of Feeling Yes, Feeling No, a play about child sexual abuse. He was also inspired by a similar Australian production and a Swedish film about two children befriended by a large man on a farm. In an interview, Harris said that, when he saw the Swedish film, he thought the man was going to abuse the children, but that his expectations were incorrect and that "the film was completely innocent; I was not".
  Harris, then host of Rolf's Cartoon Time, approached the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and the Tavistock Clinic with his idea about making a film on child sexual abuse. Both organisations were receptive. Harris had previous connections with the NSPCC, having appeared in films in 1963 and 1973 promoting the NSPCC League of Pity, and a NSPCC official suggested that he use child actors in Kids Can Say No! Harris approached director Jessica Skippon, with whom he had made a film about water safety, and said that he wanted to make Kids Can Say No! to protect children. Harris later said that production was hampered by colleagues opposing the idea that children should be told about sexual abuse.
  Kids Can Say No! was made in London with input from Carolyn Okell Jones, an expert on child abuse, and was filmed on Hampstead Heath in 1985. The child actors were students at the Barbara Speake Stage School. Skippon directed and produced the film. Funding was difficult because neither the Department of Health and Social Security nor the Home Office considered the film under their jurisdiction, and each office referred Skippon to the other. Childwatch, a charitable organisation, donated £15,000 and technical facilities were provided by Barclays Bank Video. Harris covered the rest of the film's production costs and American children's songwriter Peter Alsop wrote the theme song. American Anita Bennett wrote the script, which was reviewed and approved by a NSPCC committee. Kids Can Say No! was the second film from Rolf Harris Video, an educational video production company Harris founded in 1980. In an interview, he said that his role of talking with children about sexual abuse in the film was a natural one because "my track record has made me a believable person. I have never betrayed the kids' trust".
  Kids Can Say No! was the first British children's film about sexual abuse. The film is intended to teach children between ages five and eight how to avoid situations where they might be abused, how to get out of such situations, and how to get help if they are abused. Skippon later said that, although the people working on the film tried to keep it from being frightening to children, the task was difficult. She said that the film was not intended for home viewing and that only well-informed adults trained in the subject should present it to children.
  In April 1986, Harris met with Western Australia Police officials and members of several state-government departments in Mount Hawthorn to propose another film for children about how to handle sexual predators. Despite Harris' offer to work for free, the officials declined and instead developed a broader campaign on the subject without Harris.
caption: The child actors who appear in Kids Can Say No! were students at the Barbara Speake Stage School.
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