Why children’s TV needs the support of campaigners for international development

What children watch on TV has a major impact on their understanding of their world and could affect their future support for, and interest in, international development.

By Lorriann Robinson, IBT advocacy adviser

The UK is recognised as a global leader in aid and development and the generosity of the UK Government is matched, perhaps even surpassed by that of the UK public. Over the past 30 years, the UK public have donated more than a £1 billion to Comic Relief and in the past month alone, the public donated over £33 million to help families in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi to recover from Cyclone Idai.

Campaigners understand that we need to keep making the case for aid and development and this requires strong public support for global development. Development agencies often engage young people through their programmes and campaigns, but few make the connection between what children see on their TV screens and how this might influence support for development causes in the years to come. There is already compelling research to show these issues are connected.

New IBT research shows children want to know more about the global world. 80% of the children we surveyed for The Challenge of Children’s TV said they were interested in the world outside the UK; 86% felt it was important for them to know what was happening in the world but only 9% said that they knew a lot about other countries. Children’s programmes that focus on other countries are greatly skewed towards North America and there is very limited coverage of some regions, particularly the Middle East. Despite the interest from children to see more television content about the wider world, this need was not being adequately met by the UK’s public service broadcasters. Overall IBT’s research found that international issues and events are not on most children’s radars.

All of this means children are missing opportunities to understand the developing world. The share of television content telling children about the developing world has dropped significantly between 2007 and 2018, and last year, only 17% of new international content shown on the UK’s main public service broadcast channels featured the developing world, compared with 30% in 2007. Children interviewed for IBT’s study shared the same, sometimes negative, perceptions of Africa, having watched television adverts and news items that depict poverty and suffering on the continent.

This matters for children, for the UK, and for development causes. High quality children’s content about the global word can help children to understand and contextualise news events which can help to reduce their anxieties about these events. It can also help to promote social cohesion, encourage democratic engagement and help children to develop skills that will be essential to the 21^st century workplace.

Children are the development supporters, campaigners, and leaders of tomorrow and it’s in all of our interest to ensure they have a balanced understanding of developing countries, the people who live in these countries and the issues that affect their lives. As IBT’s research shows, children are being let down by broadcasters who are not doing enough to show children in the UK a balanced perspective of the wider world.

IBT’s new research report, The Challenge of Children’s TV, looks at how children see the world, where they get their information from and how new media content can be more effectively targeted at children to engage them with what is happening in the wider world.

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Why Children Need To Understand Global Issues

For our third article in our The Challenge of Children’s TV blog series, we heard from the Executive Director of Unicef UK, Mike Penrose, about the benefits of children being aware of global issues, the best way to engage them in the wider world and Unicef’s collaboration with First News, a weekly news publication for children.

Q: In your opinion, what are the benefits of children in the UK being aware of what is happening in the wider world?

At Unicef UK, we know that children who are engaged in international issues at a young age are more likely to be active citizens who want to make a positive contribution to the world.

There is also research which suggests that getting involved in action towards a better world has a positive impact on young people’s mental health. They will gain a better understanding of the differences between people, which they will then embrace, rather than fear.

Q: From your experience, are children in the UK interested in events taking place around the world or in the lives of people in other countries?

We believe that children in the UK are incredibly engaged and interested in the lives of people in other countries.

Thousands of children have taken part in Outright, which allows them to learn about important global issues in a fun and engaging way, and ensures their voices are heard by key political decision-makers. Children have also worked on our family reunion campaign, which saw them championing for the rights of refugees to be reunited with family members in the UK. As well as lobbying for the Safe Schools Declaration, which was endorsed by the Government. It really demonstrates the power of children’s voices to create change.

Our work in schools across the country never fails to show that children are incredibly engaged and keen to learn about other people’s lives from around the world.

Q: How aware do you think children in the UK are about global issues?

From my perspective, centennials are incredibly socially conscious and I think there is always an eagerness for children to learn more about children who live in different countries. However, it is often the case that a child’s awareness is reflective of whether they are taught about international issues at school or at home.

Through Unicef’s Rights Respecting Schools Award, we work with schools up and down the country to ensure that children are aware of their human rights. Our teaching resources are full to the brim of stories about children from around the world and one of the main areas of impact of this work is the increase in children and young people’s support for global justice. Our Rights Respecting Schools regularly tell us that by linking their curriculum to global learning they have increased the levels of pupil engagement.

I would urge all schools to make sure their students are taught about their rights to ensure that they leave education as global citizens.

Q: Are there any examples of TV or online content that you think has been successful in engaging children in the UK – and if so, why?

Thankfully, there is some brilliant content, which both engages and represents children. First News is an excellent example, with over 2.2 million readers each week, they produce articles using child- friendly language to explain complex issues. For instance, we recently worked with them on a Special Report about the Yemen conflict.

During Soccer Aid for Unicef in 2018, we also worked with First News to send Kendra, one of their young reporters and a pupil at a Rights Respecting School, to Lesotho to report on Unicef’s education work there. It was brilliant to see Kendra engaging with school children in Lesotho and bringing their voices to life in the UK through her fantastic reporting. I am always incredibly proud of our work with First News and hope to do more media work with publications which both represent and engage children in 2019.

Q: In your opinion what should the media be doing to increase the engagement of children in the UK with the wider world?

While the BBC have been leading the way with children’s news for decades thanks to Newsround, last year it was brilliant to hear about Sky News commissioning Fresh Start Media to produce FYI, a weekly children’s news show. Not only is it informative, but by having child presenters they are putting young people right at the forefront of news reporting.

We have heard repeatedly that centennials are incredibly politically motivated, therefore, more broadcasters should consider making informative programmes which engage and represent young people. In the age of ‘fake news’ it is important that children can rely on a number of trusted sources to educate them about world issues.

Q: How important is this issue for Unicef?

At Unicef, it is a vital part of our core mission to uphold the rights of every child. Therefore, it is incredibly important for us that every child has a right to access reliable information, have a say in decisions that affect them and to have a quality education. A vital part of upholding those rights is ensuring that children can learn about international issues and understand their capacity to bring about positive change in the world.

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Kids’ TV: Engaging young people with the wider world

For the second article in our The Challenge of Children’s TV blog series, we spoke to Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save The Children, about why it is so important to educate our children about the wider world, how media can engage children in global issues and what needs to be done to improve the media they have access to.

Q: In your opinion, what are the benefits of children in the UK being aware of what is happening in the wider world?

It’s so important that young people understand the world outside of their immediate environment of school, family and friends. Not only does it help children become more empathetic, considerate and conscientious people, it also allows them to develop into responsible adults who contribute to a fairer and better world.

Children are affected by global politics and events everyday – whether they realise it or not – and the more they engage with this the better they’ll be able to advocate for change, speak out for their own rights and those of other children, and realise their potential.

Q: From your experience, are children in the UK interested in events taking place around the world? How aware do you think they are of global issues?

Whilst this varies hugely depending on children’s ages, backgrounds and interests, much as it does with adults, this generation is more aware than ever before of the world around them due to an increasing exposure via social media.

The young people we meet through our campaigning work in the UK tend to be more empathetic towards others than adults, with a strong sense of justice and fairness when discussing global issues that affect other people – particularly around conflict, refugees and climate change.

Q: Are there any examples of TV or online content that you think has been successful in engaging children in the UK – and if so, why?

First News and Newsround are both unbiased, engaging and appropriate in their approach to talking to children about the world. Equally, we’ve seen children engaging with content not specifically intended for a youth audience, such as the plastic revolution sparked by the Blue Planet series.

The biggest opportunity to engage young people is through social media – whether that’s YouTube channels like Vsauce and Kurzgesagt which take an interesting and creative approach to educating children about specific topics, or Instagram influencers discussing themes of mental health, gender/identity, diversity and environmental issues.

Q: In your opinion what should the media be doing to increase the engagement of children in the UK with the wider world?

Young people are most inspired by the stories and experiences of other young people and leaders (i.e. Malala, Amika George or the March For Our Lives movement) so the media should ensure it puts their stories at the heart of any content focused on engaging children.

Q: How important is this issue for Save the Children?

This is vital. We are the world’s largest child rights’ organisation – empowering, educating and informing children about their rights, the world around them and the events that will shape their future is at the heart of our purpose as an organisation.

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5 things you need to know about children’s TV…

Children’s television is failing.

The UK government has recognised a market failure in production of kids’ TV content – an inevitable side effect of a 40% drop in funding over the last decade*.

This has led to new initiatives from both Ofcom (the media regulator) and DCMS (the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) to find urgent solutions to the inadequacies of children’s television content.

With kids’ programming now consisting of up to 98% repeats* of old content and much less new, high quality content in production, there has never been a better time to get up to speed on the issues (and solutions) within kids’ television.

In the first of this series of blogs exploring the challenge of kids’ TV and how it can be better used to inform children about the world around them, we summarise the 5 key things you need to know about kids’ television.

1. TV is one of the main sources of information about the wider world for children in the UK

Despite the fast-changing nature of media consumption, for many children in the UK, television is still one of their main sources of information about the wider world*. Though this presents a potentially invaluable opportunity to use the platform to help our children better understand the world around them, it is important that its content can compete with the growing pull of online platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Unlike our public service broadcasters (BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5), these online platforms are neither regulated for accuracy, nor under any obligation to produce content which doesn’t cause harm or encourage the spread of ‘fake news’.

2. Children want to know more about the world

Our own research shows that 86% of children think it is important that they know what is happening in other countries, but only 9% feel that they know a lot about what is happening outside the UK*.

This illustrates a real appetite for global stories, and an important gap in the market that broadcasters and producers should work to fill as part of the new efforts to improve children’s media.

3. Children’s TV needs to do a better job of preparing kids for the world

Though programmes such as CBBC’s Newsround and Sky’s FYI are doing an admirable job of featuring a wide range of international stories, children are still hugely limited in their exposure to stories and cultures from outside the UK. This is especially troubling given the increasing demands of the globalised world and workplace that our children are growing up into.

We need to act now to create a better media future for our kids. Are we laying the foundations for a generation unengaged and unaware of the world outside the UK’s borders?

Most experts agree that ensuring children understand the world outside their immediate environment is crucial – and television has a significant role to play in this.

“Children are affected by global politics and events everyday – whether they realise it or not – and the more they engage with this the better they’ll be able to advocate for change, speak out for their own rights and those of other children, and realise their potential.” – Kevin Watkins, Chief Executive of Save the Children UK.

4. There isn’t enough international kids’ TV content

53% of children we polled wanted to see more TV and video about what happens in other countries*. This is unsurprising given that in 2018, there were only 77 hours of new international content on CBBC, CITV, CBeebies and Channel 5*.

Reduced funding and growing online competition is making it increasingly difficult to get quality television made for younger audiences – particularly the bigger budget international stories. However, Sky’s successful launch of its new kids’ news show, FYI, demonstrates that there is a demand for a broader range of stories, and broadcasters should be incentivised to produce more of this international content.

5. We have an opportunity to change kids’ TV for the better

“We need to do everything we can, right now, to create a media future for children that we can be proud of, so we can all look back in 10 years’ time and be sure that we didn’t let a generation down.” – Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC.

We can all agree that we want our children to grow up as engaged and informed citizens, able to live and work in an increasingly globalised world. However, the current media landscape is failing to provide our children with the necessary content to help them understand their world, and its multitude of different people, politics and cultures.

As part of the government’s plans to save children’s TV, DCMS will be launching the Young Audiences Content Fund in April 2019. With £57 million set aside, this fund hopes to encourage more production of quality content for children by the commercial public service broadcasters like ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Though this is a good start, it doesn’t address the growing deficit of international kids’ content. We are therefore calling for DCMS to ensure that some of this fund is reserved for producing content that informs kids about the wider world.

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*Facts and figures based on research carried out for our ‘The Challenge of Children’s TV‘ report.

The Future of Children’s TV

In the spring we will be publishing a new research report that looks at children, how they see the world, where they get their information from, which media they consume and how new media content can be more effectively targeted at children to enable them to be better informed about the rest of the world.

Children’s television is currently under the spotlight. Parliamentarians are increasingly concerned about the quality of life of children growing up in the UK and the Government has recognised that there is market failure in the production of home grown content aimed at children. This means that the market alone is not producing content of sufficient quality and range.

DCMS (the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) has therefore earmarked the sum of £51m taken from the licence fee to be redirected at children’s content over the next three years. The Government will be launching a Contestable Fund in April which aims to encourage increased production of content for children by the commercial public service broadcasters (PSBs) – ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

In addition, Ofcom, the media industry regulator, has asked the commercial PSBs to address the current deficit in supply of new UK produced content for children on their channels. They are due to report back to Ofcom with plans by the end of March and Ofcom will publicly report on this in June.

We believe that this makes a report on children’s TV timely as it gives us an opportunity to influence the type of content that the PSBs will be producing. Our goal is that some of this new content will cover global stories and issues, in a way that is accessible and engaging for children of all ages.

Why we need new research

The aim of our new research will be to present an evidence base that establishes both the need for new international content and the benefits of such content.

There is existing research to show that an awareness among children of how people live in other countries leads to greater tolerance (Think Global, 2010). And recently published research from Childwise shows that in 2018 the number of children worrying about war, terrorism and global events has increased significantly in the past year – one in three children aged between 9 and 16 said they were more worried about conflict in the world than anything else.

It is IBT’s view that no broadcaster in the UK provides adequate content to explain the wider world to children. The reason we focus on broadcasters is that the content they transmit is regulated, high quality and produced from a UK cultural perspective. Online content is not regulated for harm and offence or accuracy.

This report will examine the real benefits of children having access to international content, establish the current level of provision of such content and explore with children of different age groups the type of content they enjoy and the kind of international content that is most likely to appeal to them.

We are keen to hear about the experience of IBT members who work with children so do please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about this research.

Mark Galloway
IBT Executive Director
January 3, 2019

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