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"Ofcom has censured the BBC over the treatment of a child actor in BBC Two&amp;#039;s five-part drama Line of Duty. The regulator said that not enough was done to protect 13-year-old Gregory Piper, who played Ryan Pilkington in the show, The Guardian reports.  In one scene broadcast on July 17, Pilkington was headbutted by a policeman before trying to sever the officer&amp;#039;s fingers with a bolt cutter after putting his hand in a vice. An episode that aired on July 24 saw an officer tell Pilkington that he could end up in a young offenders institution where 16 and 17-year-olds would knock out his teeth &amp;quot;so you give a better blow job&amp;quot;. Following a single viewer complaint, Ofcom said that the BBC was guilty of a &amp;quot;serious lapse&amp;quot;, adding that it was &amp;quot;particularly concerned about the child actor&amp;#039;s exposure to sexualised language&amp;quot;. The BBC said that it was in constant dialogue with Piper&amp;#039;s parents, but the regulator noted that &amp;quot;due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under 18&amp;quot;. Ofcom added that &amp;quot;there did not appear to be anyone who was independent and had no direct interest in the child actor&amp;#039;s participation in the series involved in the decision making regarding his participation&amp;quot; - Line of Duty&amp;#039;s creator Jed Mercurio oversaw Piper&amp;#039;s welfare and was his main point of contact. The BBC outlined 11 steps it had taken prior to filming and added: &amp;quot;We believe that overall the decisions and arrangements made minimised any risk of emotional harm during the filming process itself.&amp;quot; It also gave the regulator a note from Piper&amp;#039;s mother stressing that his first acting job had been a positive experience. However, the BBC admitted that best practice was not used in the interview scene - specifically that some of the dialogue should have been filmed with Piper not present to prevent his exposure to certain language. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/media/news/a445692/bbc-guilty-of-serious-lapse-over-line-of-duty-child-scenes/>