Love Island not for a 5pm viewing slot

Child development expert Nathan Wallis says ‘‘highly sexualised’’ reality TV shows such as Love Island are ‘‘turning children into adults, making them grow up beyond their time’’.

A ‘‘clean’’ version of the British reality TV show has been airing at 5pm on Three since early June.

In the game, a group of attractive singles enter a luxury villa in Spain, where they’re required to ‘‘couple up’’ with people romantically, all in the hope of creating the perfect relationship.

The cast are required to wear their swimming togs during the day, and dress up in party clothes at night. There are innuendo-filled challenges, and conversation centres around romantic relationships, ‘‘he said, she said’’ narratives, and at a more wholesome level, friendship.

The suitability of the show was brought to the public’s attention last week when a Welsh principal sent a letter to parents, saying children as young as 8 were ‘‘re-enacting’’ the series in the playground.

The uncut version, which airs at 9pm in the UK, is only available to stream on

Three Now in New Zealand. Three classifies the cleaned-up version – in which the swear words and most explicit mentions of sex have been edited out – with a G classification, meaning it is suitable for children to watch without the supervision of an adult.

Wallis disagrees. ‘‘If it was really worthy of a G rating then no-one would be concerned about what children are imitating in playgrounds. It wouldn’t be raising any eyebrows,’’ he says.

‘‘If you put things in front of children that are highly sexualised, children will act in that way, and it will put children at risk. I think it takes away the innocence of childhood.’’

A spokeswoman for Three said it had ‘‘no plans’’ to change the show’s broadcast time. ‘‘The content on this show falls inside Broadcasting Standards for the 5pm time slot,’’ she said.

‘‘Regardless of where and when that content is consumed, and like all other content that exists whether that be online or on linear, it is up to individual households to decide whether it is appropriate viewing for them.’’

The spokeswoman said Three had received just one Broadcasting Standards Authority complaint since the show started airing on linear television.

The Free-to-air Television Code says children should be protected from broadcasts that could ‘‘adversely affect them’’.

It says context plays an

important part, an umbrella that includes the programme’s classification, the time of broadcast, the target and likely audience, audience expectations, and the public interest.

It also says an ‘‘audience advisory’’ should be broadcast before programmes aired in children’s normally accepted viewing hours.

Wallis says parents of children who have been watching, or who catch an episode by accident, should be having conversations to explain what they’ve seen play out.

‘‘Have a conversation to explain the difference between reality and real life intimate relationships,’’ he says.

He warns that such programming, along with what’s available on the internet, is ‘‘socialising a whole generation of children away from truly intimate relationships’’ by ‘‘sexualising it all’’.

Wallis did note that the show won’t be ‘‘damaging’’ for adolescents to watch, because it’s ‘‘already cashing in on where their [limbic emotional] brain is at’’.

Mother of two Angela Barrett believes the contestants ‘‘are not great role models for kids’’.

Barrett has issue with the fact that ‘‘adults can watch whatever they want, but a 5pm timeslot suggests this is OK for kids’’.

‘‘The pressure cooker in this situation has nothing to do with love. Love is about connection, it’s not all about looks.

‘‘Kids have a hard enough time as it is – with the onslaught of social media and influencers in bikinis – to feel OK about how they look.

‘‘This isn’t helping. It’s confirming their suspicions that being hot is the most important thing to be. Ask any 10-year-old and they already know the word hot, like it’s a thing to strive for.’’

Barrett says shows that send messages to kids ‘‘that being hot is the most important thing about them’’ doesn’t build them up. Instead, they ‘‘erode confidence and create fear’’.