UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy has written to video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, urging them to promote higher quality educational content for children.
Recent statistics suggest that although a decade ago children watched an average of two hours of television a day, that amount has since fallen by more than 70%. Instead, children were migrating to YouTube, TikTok and other streaming platforms between the ages of four and eight, Nandy said.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the government wanted to “open a dialogue” with the platforms initially, but would consider intervening if they did not comply.
Nandy said: “A lot of content created in the UK is very high quality content aimed at children. It helps them educate themselves about the world, helps with well-being and emotional development and is also a lot of fun.
“What we are finding is that more and more children are turning to video-sharing platforms like YouTube, finding their own content and often it is not as high quality as the type of content that public service and commercial broadcasters produce, and that is one of the concerns as a government.”
Former BBC presenter Floella Benjamin, who was a guest editor on the programme, described the platforms as a “wild west” rife with inappropriate content.
Nandy said that while the government had already strengthened measures to remove content harmful to children, he felt there was “a deeper point” around the quality of content children were consuming.
“There’s something great about YouTube, it’s democratizing, you have these people starting their careers from their bedrooms. But you have to strike a balance to ensure that children can find very good quality content.”
When asked about the 52% decline in funding for children’s television between 2002 and 2018, Nandy said he did not believe investing more in children’s content would help, as evidence suggested the government’s content fund for young audiences The previous one meant that more content was created, but it failed to reach children who do not watch television.
He disagreed with Benjamin’s assessment that children’s television was in crisis because “it really is one of the crown jewels” in the UK, from CBeebies to Peppa Pig. “The government’s job is to support it and help it flourish,” he said, noting that it used to not be very profitable.
Nandy said monitoring what her nine-year-old son was doing on his iPad was “a challenge,” but acknowledged that the filters on video-sharing platforms were “very good” and appreciated that her school had instilled the habit of watching Newsround. in it.
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He said he had written to Ofcom asking the regulator to prioritize children’s television and consider the challenges as part of the review of public service broadcasting due in the summer.
He said it was important for the government to strike the right balance between attracting investment from platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney, without “damaging or displacing uniquely British content”.
This included striking deals with public service broadcasters that would allow them to have more content online while adequately remunerating them for their investment and work, he said.