Eating humble pie?
- 12 Dec 06, 10:31 AM
Childhood obesity is one of the great issues of our time, and certainly a subject on which Newsround frequently reports.
We even (let me get my defences in early) have an online special section, packed full of advice and inspiration to help children stay healthy.
So a recent mince pie competition got me thinking about what our policy should be on such eating (or over-eating) competitions.
I'm torn.
On the one hand, children can clearly see that it's a piece of fun. In our TV piece, we dwelt on the disgusting shots of people pushing food in their face, to exaggerate its unhealthiness. We scripted and edited it to make it as ridiculous as possible. And our presenter stressed in the intro that it was definitely a "less healthy pursuit".
So I am convinced most children would have laughed along and poked fun at the competitors, rather than reaching for the nearest Mr Kipling six-pack.
On the other hand, simply by covering the event, we are arguably endorsing it. And with such a sensitive subject, we shouldn't be reporting anything which might encourage children to take up unhealthy behaviour.
But that makes children seem very literal and unsubtle; and everything we know about children's media habits says that they are astute enough to understand the subtext behind what they're watching. And what's the point of children's TV if you can't have any fun?
And yet, and yet. Every time I write a letter defending our policy, something in me worries that we are being irresponsible.
Thoughts?
Tim Levell is editor of Newsround
