Sunday, September 29, 2013

Friday was a sad day for Newsround, as it was Joe Tidy's last day at the BBC before he moves on to Sky News.

Joe Tidy reporting for Newsround on Tuesday 9th April 2013 at 4.25pm


A series of Newsround reports about gender pressure concluded on Friday afternoon with kids talking about their own experiences and Dr Aaron Balick giving his expert opinion.

Leah: Joining me on the sofa is CBBC's agony uncle Aaron. Thank you so much for joining us.

Dr Aaron: You're welcome

Leah: So what did you make of those videos - lots of girls there talking about worries they have about their appearance?

Dr Aaron: Yes, sadly this is really common, girls do get really worried about their appearance. Part of the reason for this is they tend to focus on the parts of themselves they don't like much more than the parts of themselves that they do like. And if they could kind of reverse that, lots of girls would feel a lot better about the way they looked.

Leah: Now not many videos from boys, but they do have the same types of pressures. I guess it's just not as easy to talk about how they're feeling?

Dr Aaron: Yeah that's exactly right. Boys and girls have the same kinds of feelings, face different kinds of pressures, but experience them in the same ways. It's just that girls, for some reason, are allowed to speak about their feelings and it's like boys aren't. But boys would feel better if they could talk about their feelings, so it's really important they can find people they can talk freely with.

Leah: And if you had any advice about coping with pressure what would you say?

Dr Aaron: I would just say that there's really no one way to be a boy and there's no one way to be a girl and we're all different. And though we face some pressures, if we could try really hard just to be really who we are and try to ignore some of those bad pressures we'd be a lot happier.

Leah: OK Aaron, thank you so much for joining us.

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Newsround is considering which big topic to cover next, and is asking for suggestions about the big issues that affect viewers' lives. However kids are told "You must ask your parent, teacher or guardian for permission before you send us a comment." So that's put paid to any children's problems about which they feel unable to discuss with those closest to them.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Newsround is planning to carry a series of reports about gender.

They'll be investigating whether it's okay to sell toys as 'for boys' and 'for girls'; why girls do better than boys at school; and if being a boy or a girl affects the job you think you could do. They want to hear from kids about the pressures growing up as a boy or a girl. Check out this webpage for more information.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

BBC bosses were in the spotlight yesterday when seven of them were asked to appear before the Commons Public Accounts Committee to answer a few questions about the BBC's imprudent use of licence payers' money.

One very important boss, the current Director-General Tony Hall, seemed to be keeping a distinctly low profile. It was, by the way, essentially Chris Patten's decision to offer the director-generalship to Tony Hall after his previous nominee failed to deliver. So why, on such an important day for the BBC, did Lord Hall not surface to give interviews to programmes like Channel 4 News and Newsnight?

Tony Hall

Lord Hall: the next BBC disaster waiting to happen? He spoke recently about the death of David Frost.

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

BBC seeking families to take part in Marrying Mum and Dad (Series 3)

CBBC is looking for families to get involved in series 3 of Marrying Mum and Dad

CBBC - Get Involved


Applications to take part must be in by the end of September - that's about four months earlier than the deadlines in previous years. At the time of writing it's still not clear whether the BBC is interested in hearing from families who might want to take advantage of the new marriage equality legislation.

Monday, September 02, 2013

Concerns mentioned in my last blog relate to CBBC's Marrying Mum and Dad series. The BBC has addressed one of those concerns. Still waiting to hear back on another important issue.