Live television footage of a young woman having her nipple pierced on German reality TV show Big Brother has outraged politicians and child protection agencies. Contestant Daniela Peter, 23, was shown on morning television on Thursday lying topless on a table, her face contorted with pain.

“There is only one answer to this extreme, shameless voyeurism — switching off and straight away,” Claudia Roth, human rights spokeswoman for the Greens, told German daily Bild.



Child protection expert Bruno Nikles of Essen University told the newspaper, “such self-mutilation shouldn’t be shown on television because children could be watching.”



The Big Brother format, in which 10 to 15 contestants are filmed continuously while locked in a house and then voted out by viewers, has been repeated in countries around the world. But producers have come under fire for coercing contestants into increasingly shocking activities to attract viewers.



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