- "Children's broadcasters... are concerned that the
depiction of warring adults and emotional trauma served up on some daytime
shows could turn children into disturbed, self-obsessed adults with no
understanding of happiness."
-
- Young children risk being "damaged" by the
excessively confrontational and sexual content of daytime television shows,
according to the presenters of some of the most famous television programmes
for youngsters.
-
- Children's broadcasters, including Johnny Ball, Toni
Arthur and Susan Stranks, have told the Telegraph that they are concerned
that the depiction of warring adults and emotional trauma served up on
some daytime shows could turn children into disturbed, self-obsessed adults
with no understanding of happiness.
-
- Among the offending programmes are ITV's Trisha, Channel
Four's The Salon and even Richard & Judy, which is also on Channel
Four.
-
- The warning by the presenters has been issued in response
to the increasing reliance of broadcasters on reality programmes to win
viewers and advertisers for their daytime slots.
-
- Channel Four last week began screening repeats of Teen
Big Brother at 9.30am in a slot normally reserved for school programmes.
When it was shown last year the programme, which featured two of the young
housemates having sex, was criticised as depraved, with some critics claiming
that it marked a low point for British television.
-
- Susan Stranks, a former presenter on ITV's Magpie programme,
who runs Britain's only radio station for children under 10, said that
broadcasters could not ignore the impact that shows were having on younger
viewers.
-
- "Programmes such as Trisha happily parade a series
of challenged, distressed and damaged adults. They revel in language and
behaviour that is totally unsuitable for children. Worse still, they leave
children with the impression that the only way to be noticed is to be bad
or sad. Children have said as much to me."
-
- She added: "I know many parents who are concerned
about the stuff that is broadcast while children are watching. So many
children, however, are left in front of the television on their own. The
box in the corner of the room has become a substitute parent."
-
- Toni Arthur, the former presenter of the BBC's Playaway
programme, said that television's pandering to the cult of celebrity was
producing unsavoury role models for youngsters.
-
- "There is a cult of celebrity centred around adults
who are happy to humiliate themselves by publicly revelling in their terrible
lives. All this leaves children with an impression that they should be
dissatisfied with their lot, that they should be unhappy, that they should
complain."
-
- Johnny Ball, the Bafta award winning broadcaster, who
has presented a succession of BBC children's programmes, including Play
School, Think of a Number and Think Again, is so concerned that he has
banned his grandson from watching some programmes.
-
- "I would not expose my three-year-old grandson Woody
to these programmes because I feel that would not be responsible, given
much of their content. I do think there are some dangers in what is being
shown," said Mr Ball, who is the father of Zoe Ball, the children's
presenter.
-
- The concerns of broadcasters are also shared by medical
professionals who fear that youngsters could ape the behaviour they see
on television. Ron Bracey, a consultant psychologist from Chichester, West
Sussex, who studies the impact of television on children, said: "I
don't think some pre-school children can differentiate between television
and reality, and children learn through observation and modelling. They
have a natural in-built need to copy and emulate what they are seeing.
-
- "These shows are particularly harmful for children
with a propensity for personality disorders. They provide kids with ammunition."
-
- Confrontational shows such as Trisha, which is broadcast
at 9.30am, top the ratings by choosing guests most likely to provoke on-screen
rows and tantrums. The show, which has been criticised by the Independent
Television Commission for exploiting guests, has carried out DNA paternity
tests for reluctant fathers and has subjected guests to lie-detector tests.
-
- The programme is broadcast five times a week, although
its producers insist that they do monitor its content during the school
holidays when even more children tune in. On last Monday's show a young
woman admitted sharing her boyfriend with her depressed mother.
-
- Anjula Mutanda, a psychotherapist who appears on ITV's
This Morning, agreed that daytime shows should be monitored, but was more
worried by the impact of hard-hitting dramas such as EastEnders on younger
viewers.
-
- "Daytime television can have a positive impact if
a child is watching it with a parent in the room. If they see a presenter
tell two arguing people to sit down, listen and take five, then there is
an educational perspective to it."
-
- A spokesman for the Trisha programme said: "This
is a programme aimed at adults and it is too easy to get an exaggerated,
second-hand view of the level of conflict on screen. The programme seeks
to resolve issues and conflicts by encouraging discussion."
-
- A spokesman for Channel Four said that it had not received
any complaints about its schedule and that it had a duty to offer programmes
that differ from other broadcasters.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/01/n
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