Sending the right messages

A month ago Ofsted published the results of a large study of children in England. Newsround reported on 28 October. Sonali said that 150,000 ten to fifteen year-old children were questioned, and that most feel happy, healthy and safe, but that the thing which stressed them out the most was exams. There was a more extensive report about the survey on Newsround's 5pm programme. Maddy said that almost 6 out of 10 kids dread exams, and many are also worried about what happens when they leave school. Maddy went on to say that body image was the next biggest concern, and that bullying is also a concern with only 1 out of 3 kids reckoning their school is doing the right things to help stop it.

Children's minister Beverley Hughes then answered kids' questions. The last question was from Carla who was worried that magazines depict skinny people. She asked if they could put some "bigger people" in them. In reply Ms Hughes said We don't edit those magazines, so actually we can't control the content of them very finely like that. But what we can do is send the right messages and I think that you're absolutely right - we need magazines, television, all kinds of media to represent how we all are. And we're not all skinny, so I support what you're saying.