Domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid has gotten in touch with Love Island after being tagged in a stream of posts detailing concerning behaviour on the reality TV show.

The charity confirmed that they held talks with producers from the show over alleged “misogyny and controlling behaviour”.

Head of communications and media relations at Women’s AidTeresa Parker, says the charity felt the need to conduct talks with producer as so many young people “are influenced by the show” and are “learning what is acceptable in relationships”.

“At Women’s Aid we are being tagged into a stream of Twitter posts, with viewers of Love Island highlighting the misogyny and controlling behaviour being shown on screen,” Parker said.

“This is clearly more than talking about any individual contestants, and a programme based around the formation of romantic relationships must have guidelines on what behaviour is acceptable and unacceptable in those relationships.

“We are talking to ITV, and they have shared with us information on their inclusion training, but what appears to be missing is specific information on abusive relationships and an understanding of controlling behaviour in relationships.

“It is vital that producers know when to intervene and challenge unacceptable behaviour. Women’s Aid has offered to help, and we want to assure people tagging us into posts that we are in conversation with ITV and the Love Island producers about what we can do moving forward to help address this.”

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Just one of the concerning relationships that viewers believe highlight controlling behaviour is the relationship between Luca Bish and Gemma Owens. Luca has been very territorial about their relationship and has even admitted to being slightly controlling. In a recent episode, Luca blew up at Gemma because another islander flirted with her, even though she didn’t reciprocate.

During the latest episode of After Sun, Laura laughed off Luca’s treatment of Gemma, saying “it’s just because he’s in love, though”.

Another episode shows deaf islander Tasha Ghouri getting repeatedly bullied by cast mates Luca and Dami Hope. Last night’s episode sees the men apologises to Tasha over their treatment of her – something that appears to have come out of the blue and has viewers questioning if producers forced them to say sorry after the Women’s Aid talks.

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