BBC angers parents with children’s iPlayer
Inability to restrict viewing means new app for the under-12s will stop them nodding off, say experts
THE BBC risks disrupting children’s sleep patterns by releasing a new iPlayer Kids app without parental controls that allow it to be disabled during the night, experts have warned. The app, aimed at the under-12s, contains more than 10,000 episodes of programmes from CBBC and CBeebies. The corporation says that it will provide a safe environment for children to watch their favourite shows.
The broadcaster said it had developed the app after research showed that around a third of the 2.9 billion viewings of BBC shows through iPlayer last year were of children’s programmes, with more than half of those being watched on tablets or mobiles.
Sleep experts have warned that using the devices close to bedtime can disrupt sleep patterns and delay the on- set of sleep, but the corporation said yesterday that it had decided against giving parents the option of deactivating the app at a certain time.
Alice Webb, the director of the BBC’s children’s services, said she wanted “to give children control” over how they used the app, and that the corporation did not think it was necessary to provide parental controls.
She said: “The thing we are doing here is not dictating to people, but giving them the choice. It is for parents and carers to work out how they want to do that for their own children. I’m really comfortable that children use this app in ways that parents think are appropriate. The information is out there about what is good for children and what is less good, and it’s not our job to be overstepping the mark for parents.”
A host of leading sleep experts warned that taking iPads to bed could damage children’s sleep.
Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience at Oxford University, said: “What these devices will do is almost certainly delay sleep onset.”
Paul Gringras, professor of sleep medicine at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, said: “Bright light and stimulating lay sleep onset.”
Paul Howard-Jones, professor of neuroscience and education at Bristol University, said: “Parents have to monitor technology use, particularly for young children, and anything the BBC can do to support that management I think would be a good idea.”
Teaching unions also warned about children watching television into the night. Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We need to be careful as young people often spend too much time watching programmes. It can mean they’re too tired the lowing day for school.”
The new app comes after the corporation’s governing body, the BBC Trust, overrode concerns of parents to extend the hours of CBBC from 7pm to 9pm. The Trust admitted that many parents told a public consultation that the change would disrupt children’s bedtimes, but it went ahead none the less.
Viewing data from Monday, the first night of the extended running time, calculated by overnight figures, shows that nearly a third of the 41,000 viewers of CBBC between 7pm and 9pm were between the ages of seven and nine.
fol-