Families hit by BBC 'filth'
CHILDREN as young as five are watching horrific post-watershed TV scenes of sex and violence at the click of a button.
An investigation has revealed millions of children are bypassing strict guidelines and parental controls and watching shows meant for adults by using popular TV internet services such as BBC iPlayer.
The result is that highly impressionable children are becoming hooked on TV programmes which have unsuitable images and dialogue, leading to long-term concerns for their mental health.
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Most TV catch-up websites, like iPlayer, ITV Player, and Channel 4’s 4oD, operate a voluntary system which makes parents responsible for setting up a PIN or password to block access by children if they wish.
Channel Five’s web player Demand Five requires a log in and email address to access content which cannot be broadcast on TV until after 9pm when young children are in bed.
But TV regulator, Ofcom, found that three per cent of children from five to seven have internet in their own bedrooms, which they can use to watch the TV-on-demand websites.
It also discovered that only 12 per cent of parents with children aged five to 15 had bothered to set up a PIN or password, and almost 40 per cent of parents had “no idea” the safeguards even existed.
There are 19 million households with an internet connection in Britain, so this means that millions of children are downloading post-watershed adult material every day, sometimes without their parents’ knowledge.
The Sunday Express watched an episode of the adult crime drama Wallander on the BBC iPlayer by simply confirming, with one click, that we were over 16.
The episode showed a jogger in the woods pursued by a hooded man who strangles him. There were also graphic, bloody images of a man’s corpse with cane spears poking through his chest.
From the ITVplayer, the Sunday Express downloaded an episode of Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, featuring adult sexual content. Again it took one click.
The Sunday Express has been shown exclusively a document on catch-up websites from the TV watchdog, Mediawatch. It details how easy it is for young children to access post-watershed shows featuring sex and violence and gives a comprehensive list of programmes they could access without a PIN or password. These include documentaries on sex and violence, dramas like Being Human, Misfits and Wallander and controversial comedy such as Live At The Apollo. “I’m very disturbed by what I was able to access,” said Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch. “I don’t want these shows banned, just access to them restricted. It makes a mockery of the watershed.”
Asked whether children were influenced by watching violent images, she said: “Clearly it affects children, and they are particularly vulnerable.”
Ms Pattison has written to the Government, broadcasters and Ofcom urging that the Digital Economy Bill is amended to force catch-up sites to install compulsory PIN or password access.
A Culture Department spokesman said: “Parental controls do already exist for video on demand services. Parents should be aware of what their children watch online and use these controls.”
Ms Pattison responded: “Banning post-watershed material on catch-up players is a blunt instrument, but that may be the only way to do it.”
Labour MP Barry Sheerman, Chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, said: “Our broadcasters who put this sort of filth online should be forced to ensure children are unable to access it.”
