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Summary: The mass media's representation of children is harming both young people and society. Thuis has been claimed during a conference on the relationship between the media and children's rights in Bath, UK, on 16 November.
Ā The mass media's representation of children is harming both young people and society, it has been claimed. Lynn Geldof, European regional communications advisor for UNICEF, argued that children have rights ā both to anonymity in public proceedings, and also to protection from the media in terms of television watersheds and how to interpret what they see and hear. She was speaking in Bath at a national conference looking at the conflicting issues between press freedom, reporting on children - and the rights of those children. She told an audience of journalists, lawyers, Government agencies, charities and young people that there could be no conflict between the two sides, and that a society unwilling to protect its children was a self-harming society. She added that young people were not given enough of a voice. She said: "The fact that this debate had to take place at all suggests something deeply unsettling about the media here, and the society from which it springs. "It suggests that this society is not sure it can, and not convinced it needs to protect the rights of its young, its most vulnerable members. "What future then for the UK if it does not look to the best interests of its children? āWhole sections of the UK print and broadcast media have colluded in the ādumbingā and numbing of British society by a diet of reality TV and tabloid fodder at the behest of market forces. People, children, are devouring the equivalent of fast food and becoming flabby of mind and spirit. "This was made possible by what was, in my view, the biggest missed opportunity in education way back in the 50s and 60s and which continues in the present day: the failure to teach modern media criticism, including print. "Children have a right to an education that helps them understand and interpret the world around them. āThis means they need to be able to distinguish fact from fiction, truth from lies.ā Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell also addressed the conference on the relationship between the media and children's rights in Bath yesterday. The event, held at the Forum, was organised by social care charity Quarriers. She said: "This is an important issue, and I thank Quarriers for organising the conference to address it." The debate focused on the naming of shaming of children given ASBOs, media access to legal proceedings involving children, and the need for the 9pm watershed. A panel, which included Society of Editors director Bob Satchwell and former Bath Chronicle editor David Gledhill, argued that young offenders should be named in the interests of the wider community, while Ian Johnston and Janet Foulds from the British Association of Social Workers claimed that naming and shaming was like "re-inventing the stocks" and a form of public humiliation. They asked how at an age where they were not old enough to drive or vote, youngsters could be deemed to be sophisticated enough to understand what they were doing. A passionate debate was also held asking whether journalists should cover all legal proceedings about young people, with those saying "yes" arguing how it was vital to hold those involved accountable, while those saying "no" said children involved in sensitive care proceedings did not need to suffer a double blow with an added public reminder. Ā