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UK ministers have ordered a review of child employment laws as a public outcry grows over the Channel 4 TV series, Boys and Girls Alone, which follows a group aged 8-11 who are left without adult supervision in isolated cottages in Cornwall. The review by Baroness Morgan of Drefelin, the Children’s Minister, centres on legislation that has not been properly updated since 1933 and regulations on the licensing of child performances that date from 1968. It coincides with a letter to The Times in which 40 leading child experts complained that the series, which includes scenes of children fighting and crying, amounted to “child abuse and cruelty”. They condemned the programme-makers for treating the children with contempt and suggested that such an experiment would never have won ethical approval in any field other than television. The signatories include the psychologists Dorothy Rowe and Oliver James, the anthropologist Penelope Leach, the paediatrician Hilary Cass, the author Michael Morpurgo and the philosopher Professor Roger Scruton. The Times reported this week that social services in Cornwall had written to Channel 4 condemning the programme and asking it not to show the final two episodes of the four-part series. Lady Morgan is also writing to Channel 4 asking for a response to concerns raised by the Cornish authorities. Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the Children’s Commissioner, has added his voice to the chorus of disapproval with his own letter to Channel 4 and to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, which has already begun an investigation into the series. Channel 4 has defended the show, saying that the children were screened and supported by a clinical psychologist. He added that their parents could withdraw them at any time. A spokesman denied accusations by the Cornish authorities that Channel 4 had broken performance licensing laws by not obtaining a performance licence from the county council for one of the children who comes from Cornwall. Such a licence was not ne-cessary, he said. “The legislation relating to the licensing of children is strictly limited to performances, as in the case of drama and other scripted works. As will be clear to anyone who has seen Boys and Girls Alone, the children are not performing, but are being observed in a factual programme.” Child performers must be licensed by the local authority, which must vet the production to ensure that the children’s welfare is protected. The maximum time a child can perform in one day is four hours and she or he must have a rest at least hourly. The safeguards only apply to children who are in a “performance”. However, this is not clearly defined in the legislation. Carolyn Hamilton, director of the Children’s Legal Centre based at the University of Essex, said that the law needed to be clarified urgently to ensure that all children who appeared on television were properly protected. “I would argue that it was done for entertainment, so it is a performance,” she said. Terry Drury, the chairman of the National Network of Children in Employment and Entertainment, represents local authority officers who grant licences. He said: “Programmes like Boys and Girls Alone are a great cause of concern to local authorities.” Whether children were performing under the guidance of a director or being filmed for a documentary, they needed protection, he added. Further information