Anti-Bullying Week

"Aggressive and demeaning language, e.g. homophobic or sexist language, can erode the protective ethos of a school and needs to be challenged," says the Children's Commissioner in a report about bullying published today. And he also confirms what I have been trying to get through to Newsround for some time: homophobic abuse starts at an early age. His report says that it is more difficult to change the behaviour of older than younger children, and that engaging with children and young people in understanding and tackling the culture of homophobic and sexist language is crucial.

Jim Knight MP, the schools minister said today that there should be a zero tolerance approach to bullying, and it's clear to sensible people that the BBC governors made a huge mistake when they condoned homophobic language on BBC programmes, especially where those programmes are aimed at a young audience.

Both the Children's Commissioner and CBBC Newsround have drawn attention to the problem of Islamophobic bullying, which has increased greatly since the terrorist attacks in New York and London. But Newsround has done absolutely nothing at all to raise awareness of the problems of bias- or hate-bullying inasmuch as this affects lgbt kids.