Oasis star calls for X-Factor age limit to be raised to protect the vulnerable

NOEL Gallagher has said the lower age limit for X-Factor contestants should be raised because 16-year-olds are too young to cope with the rejection – and fame.

The former Oasis star – who turned down a role on the show’s judging panel – said contestants should be at least 18.

It comes after viewers saw sobbing Amelia Lily, 16, axed from a live edition of the show on Sunday night.

There has already been criticism of the show in recent weeks for featuring such young hopefuls, with one children’s charity boss calling for the age to be raised and even judge Gary Barlow saying 16 was too young.

Gallagher, who is a fan of the show, aired his views during a guest presenter slot on Absolute Radio’s breakfast show yesterday. He said: “When you see the kids crying on there that’s quite difficult.

“They shouldn’t put a 16-year-old on that show.”

He continued: “Well I think it should be at least 18, because what would happen, conceivably, if the public voted a 16-year-old into pop stardom?”

Meanwhile, research suggests the X-Factor uses the “cruelty of rejection” to appeal to audiences.

A team of academics claimed broadcasting bad auditions, which its authors described as “the caterwauling performances of the deeply deluded”, was central to the show’s success.

Chris Hackley, one of the authors of the study, titled The X-Factor Enigma: Simon Cowell And The Marketization Of Existential Liminality, said they were interested in how the show had become “one of the biggest media brands in the world”.

Mr Hackley, professor of marketing at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: “The X-Factor writers play up the contrast between success and failure in extreme and dramatic ways.”