Mind The Compliance Gap Between Youtube & Children’s TV
The excellent Guardian article below by Tim Walker about Children’s TV makes the point that while the UK broadcast regulator Ofcom, has been granted new powers regarding children’s public service programming, what many young people are viewing is the largely unregulated content on the internet.
And there’s a great quote from CBBC presenter, Ed Petrie, who’s been in children’s TV for more than a decade. “When I started at CBBC I had training about imitable behaviour, what can be perceived as bullying on screen, inappropriate communication with children, product placement, sexually inappropriate behaviour, drugs and alcohol references. We really had it drummed into us the things we had to be aware of, because we were going to be on live TV.”
He compares it to YouTube and suggests that YouTube and its parent company Google ought to offer stars with massive online audiences support and basic training.
I remember chatting to my friend’s 13 year old daughter about a YouTube make-up and beauty teenage vlogger she was following. She seemed entirely intoxicated by the vlogger’s content, lifestyle and access to expensive beauty products, blissfully unware that she was being sold products.
Thankfully vloggers now have to make this clear. But there’s still a long way to go.