Baroness Floella Benjamin has warned that the rise of social media and the decline of children’s TV are “detrimental” to the future of British young people.
The children’s presenter, 75, known to millions of Britons as the host of BBC children’s TV shows Play School and Play Away, questioned where the modern-day versions of shows like BBC drama Grange Hill have gone.
Her comments come after Sir Phil Redmond, who created Hollyoaks, Grange Hill and Brookside, said the “courage has gone out of broadcasting” in recent years.
Lady Benjamin told BBC Radio’s 4 Today programme, which she was guest editing, that children’s TV is “in crisis” and “in turmoil”.
She added: “Children are migrating to online platforms, unregulated platforms, and watching mainly adult material which, for some, could be detrimental to their wellbeing.
“Also, children’s practitioners haven’t got the work, they haven’t got the opportunity to be creative for young people, to show young people … their lives, to have a kind of way of (children) knowing they’re not alone.
“But what’s not happening is making things for now (or) not enough. Where now is Grange Hill, where now is Byker Grove, where now is (The Story Of) Tracy Beaker? Where are all those shows that used to happen?”
She the absence of such shows will be “detrimental to our children’s wellbeing for the future” and the industry.
Lady Benjamin added: “Many children who are watching are influenced to become writers (and) want to be part of the creative world, and we’re not doing that.
“So I think it’s detrimental to their wellbeing, to their creativity. We used to have programmes that (were) just there for children, the diversity of the programmes that we had was vast.”
She also interviewed director of children and education at the BBC, Patricia Hidalgo, and Louise Bucknole, general manager of kids and family at Paramount UK.
Ms Hidalgo said that globally children’s TV “is on its knees because of the changes in the way that children are actually consuming content”, but said that the BBC reaches 70% of children in the UK.
“We really have to be across so many other types of content, whether it’s our streaming channels, our websites, YouTube, what we do on social media it’s really, really important for them,” she added.
Ms Bucknole said Channel 5’s Milkshake! remains popular, but also said that there is “no magic money pot”, and so the broadcaster needs to be selective.
She also said: “We are commissioning content, but not at the same level, and what we’re having to do, because of the funding challenges, particularly on live action series, is we’re having to fully fund series so we’re not going to make as many because we have a limit on our budgets.”
Lady Benjamin said she hopes the Government and Ofcom is listening to the TV commissioners and “anybody out there who cares about childhood memories, because childhood lasts a lifetime”.
Earlier this month, Sir Phil told the Today programme: “I think the problem is that the courage has gone out of broadcasting, really, and there’s just too much risk aversion.
“There is a place for something like Grange Hill, and from my career, I always found that the harder you made the storyline, the more you upset the regulators, but the more the audience appreciated it, because the audience live these issues, and what they want to see is their own life put on screen as realistically as possible.”
He also said the issue he would “want to tackle is the impact of social media”.
Sir Phil has previously talked about a film of Grange Hill, while Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly announced earlier this year that they would be bringing back popular teen drama Byker Grove for a new series.
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, based on Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s book, ran on the BBC between 2002 and 2006, and has led to spin-offs including The Beaker Girls, My Mum Tracy Beaker, The Dumping Ground and Tracy Beaker Returns.
Last year, ITV announced the planned closure of its dedicated children’s channel CITV and a move to a new service, ITVX Kids, on its streaming platform ITVX.
