Billy Elliot the Forum

I doubt anyone on this forum has an answer to that question. You would probably have to ask someone connected with the company itself. It's possible, I suppose, that they have loosened up a bit, or on the other hand, they might not be aware of the accounts.

However, the one thing I can say from the perspective of this forum is that any links given to such accounts on here will only be allowed if the links lead to posts that are public. Therefore, please be very careful about discussing or linking to accounts belonging to children in the cast, since if there is any evidence that the accounts are not for public view, the posts will be removed.

Simply a guess based on having spent many years in a related business, but the Billy Elliot 'house' could well have the same authority/duty of care (being 'in loco parentis') as does any school (especially a residential one) to monitor and limit the use of its minor charges' social media that might be accessed by members of the public, for obvious reasons of safety.

This could explain why the International Tour seemed to have fewer restrictions over social media, as most of the children were traveling with a parent or guardian, thus rendering the Tour free of 'in loco parentis' duty of care.

Don't forget Instagram and facebook have rules banning use by under 13 year olds, so the chaparones could not publicly allow the younger kids to use it. I suspect it would be difficult to have different rules for different kids, which probably leads to a restriction for all whilst in London. On top of that they are surely too busy in London to be messing with fans on the net.

Is it possible to draw comparisons for performers who both toured and worked in London, their pre vs post London postings, I wonder, say on facebook?

So far as I know, there aren't any kids who are alumni of both the tour and London at this point. When he concludes his run in London, Mitchell will be the first to fit that description, but at the moment, he is still in the London show.

There are some ex-BETM kids from London who now have facebook, instagram, or twitter accounts, but they didn't have active ones while in the show. Most of the facebook accounts are private, but the twitter accounts tend to be public. As always, we ask members to respect the content of any accounts that are set up as private.

That doesn't give you much to go on, I'm afraid.

My comment was towards validating the hypothesis that the London operation is subject to stringent child protection regulations and policies/practices. I've been impressed by what I've read about approaches developed in the UK. They seem quite progressive.

They are very stringent indeed. It's not just a hypothesis.