Media personality and fashion icon Paris Hilton is advocating against institutional child abuse by sponsoring California Republican lawmaker Shannon Grove’s bill, the Accountability in Children’s Treatment (ACT). This bill aims to provide greater transparency for parents about the whereabouts of their children during their stay in troubled youth programs. Facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services will be required to disclose information such as the use of restraints and solitary confinement-style rooms. Hilton hopes that increased transparency will hold facilities accountable for their actions while also helping survivors like herself feel validated and heard.
Hilton’s personal experience of alleged sexual abuse as a teenager at a boarding school in Utah in the ’90s has fueled her dedication to this cause. She believes that sending youth far away from everyone they know and love is not a sustainable answer to addressing mental health or behavioral needs. The state of California has already taken steps to protect children, including those in foster care, from out-of-state facility abuse by passing legislation that de-certified non-California facilities and ordered all youth to return by January 2023. Governor Gavin Newsom allocated $8 million to facilitate the immediate return of children and bolster behavioral treatment programs.
Grove, the sponsor of SB 1043, the bill supported by Hilton, believes that the extra layer of transparency provided by this legislation will help eliminate the long-standing problem of child abuse. She highlighted instances of abuse in out-of-state programs, where children were kept in isolation for extended periods of time, sometimes up to 20 hours in an empty room. Many children have come forward with allegations of abuse from these facilities, which were meant to provide a camp-like environment but often subjected children to trauma and harm.
The recent Netflix docuseries “The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping” shed light on cases of abuse at facilities like New York’s Academy at Ivy Ridge, where former students detailed experiences of abduction, strip searches, starvation, sleep deprivation, corporal punishment, and solitary confinement. Hilton herself recounted a similar experience in her youth as a victim of a “parent-approved kidnapping,” where staff members would perform unauthorized medical exams on her and other girls. Last year, Hilton supported the bipartisan Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act introduced by U.S. lawmakers, emphasizing the need for stronger oversight in residential youth treatment programs to prevent child abuse.
Hilton and Grove plan to present their bill during a press conference in Sacramento, California, demonstrating their commitment to addressing institutional child abuse and advocating for greater transparency and accountability within youth facilities. Hilton’s personal experiences and advocacy work have brought greater attention to this issue, inspiring compassionate understanding for youth with mental health or behavioral needs and working towards preventing further instances of abuse. By collaborating with lawmakers and sponsoring legislation like the ACT bill, Hilton is leveraging her platform to effect positive change and support survivors of institutional child abuse.
