The hypocrisy of 'Raised by the Village', the show that is not serving 'troubled' teens

'Raised by the Village' condemns children's use of social media — pure hypocrisy when we consider how we are mining them for likes on a different medium

RTE's Montrose campus. Picture: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie

On Sunday March 24, the RTÉ series Raised by the Village returned to our screens. For those who haven’t seen it, the show’s premise is to peek behind the curtain at the lives of children — teenagers — who are experiencing behavioural or emotional challenges at home, and to watch as they are placed in a wholesome new environment for a different perspective.

Each week, viewers journey with the child, from their own home to their host family in a rural setting, often a farm, for some ‘respite’. They stay with this family for a short period of time during which they are cut off from technology, immersing themselves in the community, before returning home, with the aforementioned ‘issues’ resolved, and all involved ‘enlightened’ in some respect. That’s the idea, anyway.