Teletubbies creator warns parents over ‘empty’ YouTube programmes for children | Children’s TV

The creator of Teletubbies has warned parents that many children’s programs on YouTube are “empty” and “do nothing to stimulate the creative life of children”.

Veteran children’s producer Anne Wood, who designed the popular TV show for pre-schoolers, said children’s television had long been undervalued and she feared “we’re losing a tremendous amount and no one sees it because it’s not seen as important”.

He felt that platforms like YouTube had abdicated “responsibility for art” produced by trained professionals. “It’s exciting but it doesn’t need to be used responsibly in the interests of young audiences,” he said.

Wood and others in children’s TV have shared concerns that algorithmic and infinite scrolling functions on YouTube do not prioritize high-quality content for children in the same way public service broadcasters did after children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce told MPs that most programs on YouTube acted as “sedation”.

The decline, which began in 2003 when the Communications Act removed a requirement for commercial public service broadcasters to invest in children’s TV, accelerated with the emergence of algorithm-driven online platforms, Wood said. He added that it had been “forgotten” that Teletubbies “made a huge amount of money for the BBC”.

Although Teletubbies was accused of “dumbing down” when it was first published in 1997, later academic research has suggested that an emphasis on rhyme, repetition and simplicity improves children’s language skills.

Wood acknowledged that “a lot of people don’t understand Teletubbies” but attributed the show’s success to focus groups aimed at meeting children where they are; This turned the popular notion that “you had to explain things to kids” on its head.

“On television you can show kids their own experiences in a great way and portray them in a funny way that makes them smile; if you have kids smiling, their self-confidence grows,” he said. “For a three- or five-year-old child, editing is a real art; you hold it in your hand to give the child time.”

He compared this to algorithms that “subvert your own ability to develop, think and imagine.” He said programs like CoCoMelon are “distractions” to help busy parents and can be useful in small doses, but he said many YouTube channels are “on the side of things that make them money” and wonder “what they’re boring, what kids are missing.”

Children’s TV presenter Konnie Huq, who presented Blue Peter between 1997 and 2008 and will soon play headteacher Miss Saeed in the new BBC series Dexter Proctor, The 10-Year-Old Doctor, admitted that the children’s television landscape has changed significantly.

“You can find some really good educational stuff if you look, but if a child is told they can eat sugar at every meal, they may eat sugar at every meal. People (adults and children) will seek instant gratification and hit dopamine on something that may require a little more work, but may provide delayed gratification and longer-term benefits,” he said.

Huq also said he feared the media industry was becoming increasingly commercially focused: “It’s hard to even exist in the media world these days without TikTok, Instagram and millions of product endorsements – maybe that’s my downfall. The BBC was the last bastion of not being like that, but now when you go to a meeting at the Beeb they want people to do these things.”

But he felt there were deep roots in the undervaluation of children’s TV, which was excluded from the main Bafta event and where fees were lower. “People look at it as sort of the secondary little brother or sister, when in fact it’s much more important than adult television in terms of raising kids to be the adults of tomorrow,” he said.

Sonia Livingstone, director of the Center for Children’s Digital Futures at the London School of Economics, said evidence shows children benefit from high-quality content that is educational, imaginative or creative, but “parents don’t always know how to understand what’s valuable”.

He added that “the problem with YouTube is the format rather than the content” because the algorithm is commercially motivated and has the ability to “capture and sustain attention beyond where the child would naturally continue watching.”

YouTube has been approached for comment.

Dexter Procter: The 10-Year-Old Doctor will be released on BBC iPlayer and CBBC in December.