"He’s a child everyone" - The concerning sexualisation of Emmy-winning child actor Owen Cooper on TikTok
- Ellen Roberts
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
It's been over two months since Owen Cooper won an Emmy award for his role in the critically acclaimed Netflix series ‘Adolescence’. Since then, social media has been inundated with thirst edits of the child star, to songs that are popularly used for thirst traps of grown adults such as “pony” by Ginuwine, despite him being just 15 years old.
The comment section is even more concerning, with users saying that the actor is attractive before being aware of his age.
One TikTok that had particularly inappropriate comments, is an edit that shows him in an interview on the red carpet after his Emmy win, where a journalist asks: “Will you be taking this (the Emmy award) into school. Owen replies, “No this would get stolen in my school.”
This initial conversation between Owen and the interviewer in the video, makes it clear that Owen is still in school. Despite this, the video then launches into an edit of him, using the song ‘Harley's in Hawaii’ by Katie Perry, a TikTok audio popular for thirst edits.
The comments section was then flooded with comments and images such as these:
Some TikTok users were bringing light to the alarming nature of the edit and claimed it sexualising the actor. There were comments such as:
“He’s a child everyone.”
“This is a reminder that liking minors as an 18-19-year-old is weird. I find this edit repulsive.”
“He's under 18, guys, please behave.”
The role of sound choices in Tiktoks ever growing thirst trap culture
TikTok audios also encourage the issue of sexualised content focusing on minors in the public eye. Certain sexualised songs are commonly used for thirst edits on the platform. So even if video does not explicitly include text calling them attractive, the audio when applied to a minor, alludes to their adultification. The algorithm favours videos that use popular audios, so when a sexualised sound is applied to an edit of a minor, the algorithm may promote it regardless of the fact the the sound may make the video of a concerning nature.
We dove deeper, and found a list of examples of where “Thirst trap audios” have been used for Owen Cooper edits, increasing the popularity and harmful reach of these videos.
“Pony” - Ginuwine
“Streets” - Doja Cat
“Rude boy” - Rihanna
“Don't cha” - The Pussycat Dolls
“Agora hills” - Doja Cat
“Shake dat ass” - Bossman Dlow
“Breakin’ dishes” - Rihanna
An Owen cooper edit we found used part of the “Breakin dishes” song that goes “a man a man a man” , this gives a perfect example of the adultification of child actors through edits, as Owen Cooper is merely 15 years old and can hardly be described as a man. Combine these lyrics with the fact this song is widely used in edits that glorify peoples looks, it plays into a harmful narrative. Its showing the darker societal view of child actors. The view that because they have a job in the public eye, they can be treated as fully grown adults, warranting comments and focus on their appearances.
Other childs stars who have spoken out about being sexualised from a young age
Millie Bobby brown, the Stranger Things actor, revealed that growing up in the public eye has involved “online bullying and inappropriate sexualization,” which she said contributed to anxiety and insecurity.
Finn Wolfhard is another of the Stranger Things cast who experienced strange sexualisation on social media as a child. In 2017, a 27-year-old model tagged him on Instagram when he was just 14 years old and said, “hit me up in 4 years.”
He responded to the tag calling the models behaviour “gross”
This confirms their is a wider issue of child actors being treated as adults due to them being in the public eye.
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