Children and Families Bill

Debate between Lord Storey and Viscount Colville of Culross

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Viscount Colville of Culross (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a television producer for the BBC. I support the amendment. It will both encourage children to extend their skills and protect them from the possible threats posed by the proliferation of new media platforms. It responds to the explosion in the range of media in which children can now appear. It takes into account the ever-changing programming available today, as factual and entertainment programmes are commissioned to entertain an audience with an increasingly short attention span and greater demands to be surprised and shocked.

The amendment would introduce a consistent local authority licensing system for under-16s who perform in the visual media, as we have already heard. As a television producer, it might seem odd that I should want to make my life and that of my colleagues more difficult by extending the regulatory regime, so that we would have to do more work when preparing for a production that involves young people. But it is because I am a television producer that I am well aware of how the present regulatory system is failing children. It often frustrates the hopes of children while failing to protect them from the dangers that may await them.

The noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, explained the chaotic postcode lottery of different local authorities and their responses, which is very difficult for producers in the media who want to work with children. There is a case of children in a school that served two neighbouring local education authorities. The school was asked to take part in a concert to be broadcast on television. But when it came to transmission, only half the choir had permission to perform. One authority had given a licence to perform and the neighbouring authority had refused. How on earth can that be fair on the children involved?

Subsection (6) of the proposed new clause is in line with paragraph 104 of Sarah Thane’s review, which calls for a proper definition of what constitutes “performance”. The subsection is very important. It spells out which filmed activities involving children do not require a licence, although they will still of course require permission from parents and head teachers. It makes clear that everything else would be covered by the licensing system. The result would be that many new genres, which at present are not covered, would be included.

For instance, there is a new type of programming called structured reality TV, which masquerades as observational documentary while in fact the participants are open to direction. The genre covers shows such as “The Only Way is Essex” and “Made in Chelsea”, with which I am sure your Lordships will be familiar, which are massively popular with a young audience. At the beginning of the show “TOWIE”, viewers are mischievously warned, “Some of the tans you see might be fake, but these are real people, although some of what they do has had a little nip and tuck purely for your entertainment”. The warning should give the Committee a clue that the characters are subject to a narrative created by producers in which they are directed in a situation to ensure maximum drama, violence and even sex.

The Committee will be pleased to hear that at the moment most of the participants in these shows are aged over 18, but there are attempts to commission versions with much younger characters. The executive producer of “The Only Way is Essex” has said that when the producers are casting characters for these reality shows, they have to read them what is called “the talk of doom”, in which they warn them that people chosen to appear in the show will be recognised and abused in the street, their private lives will be watched and criticised by millions and their lives will be completely changed, not always for the better.

Apparently, the candidates, all from the social media generation, look at the executive producer with blank incomprehension. They cannot understand why they are even being warned about this. These young people’s private lives are already open books, thanks to social media. I fear that there is a generation who do not understand how psychologically damaging it can be have your privacy destroyed. We as lawmakers need to protect them and ensure that in an ever-changing media environment they are not exploited by the ruthless demands of the media.

Subsections (7), (8) and (9) of the proposed new clause are in line with the recommendations in paragraph 92 of Sarah Thane’s review, which suggests that, when it comes to licensing, the focus should be on the child—on what they are being asked to do and on the level of risk involved. This would ensure, as has already been said by noble Lords, that the consideration by local authorities of the risk to children is uniform and thorough. At the moment, decisions made by LEAs can be irrational. There was recently a case of a six year-old boy who was mentored and trained by the Olympic diver, Tom Daley, and who wanted to appear with him on the ITV show, “Splash”. All he wanted to do was dive with his hero on television, but at the last minute his local LEA in Cornwall refused him a licence to appear on the grounds that he was too young. You can imagine his disappointment.

If this amendment is adopted, a licensing code of practice will be rolled out uniformly to all local authorities across the country. Its risk assessment will cover the mental and physical health of the young people taking part in performances. Obviously, the risk assessments should be adhered to, but in the present climate of pressures on budgets and the intense competition to surprise and shock audiences across the media, enforcement will be crucial. The new system must include a tough regime of inspection of productions that involve children.

We are in a new world. The internet and digital television offer us a jungle of diversity and shock. We need to update, streamline and extend our present licensing system. Only then will our children’s performances on the media be directed with their best mental and physical welfare being at the heart of the production. I urge noble Lords to support this amendment.

[Lord Storey]

My Lords, I am tempted to suggest that perhaps there ought to be some regulations regarding the times that we can perform, so that we know when we will start and finish and that we are being safeguarded correctly—but clearly that is not going to happen.

I went along to an all-party group looking at children and young performers in the media. I did not realise the problems that not only children face in terms of safeguarding. I am being told to shut up—you see, I cannot even perform.

I will make three very quick points. First, the legislation that was quite rightly introduced in the early 1960s was to protect children, but since then history has moved on. Times have moved on. Never mind a few television channels, we have hundreds of them. We are seeing the law being broken. There are television shows that are breaking the law. There are others that are playing by the outdated 1960s regulations. For example, a poor lad wins a talent competition, but because the witching hour has passed, he has to sit in the audience and cannot be part of the winning group.

I remind noble Lords of the three concepts that my noble friend Lady Benjamin spoke about: consistency, transparency and making sure that safeguarding happens. Currently, safeguarding does not happen. If we take only one thing from this rather truncated discussion, it should be that safeguarding children has to be not only about safeguarding them as individuals but about safeguarding their opportunities. It cannot be right that children in some local authorities are allowed to take part while in other local authorities they are not.

When the Minister replies—briefly, no doubt—I ask him to consider how we can make this happen, because we cannot have legislation trying to protect our young people that goes back to the early 1960s. I had lots more to say, but perhaps I can save that for another time—or, hopefully, not.