In accordance to the Ofcom guidelines what considerations would you have to think about before producing a programme to an under 18 audience?

 

 

  • According to Ofcom “Material that might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of people under eighteen must not be broadcast” (ND)
  • We have to be aware that the viewers and listeners make a distinction between channels which appeal to wide ranging audience because people watch and listener to more that one thing including children.
  • Although the smaller, niche audience, unlikely to appeal to children.
  • Although broadcasters of these niche channels still carry a responsibility towards a potential child audience, the majority of homes do not contain children and viewers and listeners have a right to expect a range of material.
  • We have to take in consideration a visual material towards under 18, when it comes to sexual material Ofcom states “There are certain statutory provisions in force which already prohibit direct identification of those who are not yet adult”
  • How Violence and dangerous behaviour is allowed on TV and radio, Areas of

Concern include:

“• the use of accessible domestic implements, such as knives, or other offensive weapons, articles or substances portrayed in a dangerous or harmful manner

  • Any portrayal of household items, such as micro-waves and tumble-dryers, which can cause harm if misused,
  • Certain locations, such as railway lines;
  • Certain material which may lead children to fail to recognise potentially dangerous play especially if there is no serious outcome; and
  • Hanging or the preparations for hanging, if easily imitable, particularly if shown before the watershed, unless the setting gives strong grounds for believing that imitation is unlikely.”
  • Ofcom also states when I comes to language “Offensive language is a feature of British life and, in certain contexts, it has an appropriate place in broadcasting. However it raises concerns about harm to children and offence in general. There is a concern that children may imitate offensive language or be upset to hear this language, when their parents or carers have told them it is wrong, before they have worked out their own attitude to its use.” And also
  • “Abusive language relating to age, disability, gender, race, religion, beliefs and sexual orientation can be deeply offensive. Adverse reaction to the use of this language has increased over the past years. The level of offence can change as language acquires new meanings, for instance when mainstream culture adopts language from a minority group. Children enjoy a wide variety of music. However, where lyrics in songs might cause offence, broadcasters will wish to consider the context which may increase or mitigate the offence, and the possible use of track remixes and edits.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code-september-2010/protecting-under-18s/

When it comes to legal regulations –

Copyright- There could have been some issues with the copyright law when it comes to using images for our visual video and because of the law in place which clearly says that you would have to give some assets to the original owner we have had to produce and shoot out own photos for the video but because it is for educational purposes there would have been some flexibility and because it isn’t intended on financial gain.

Defamation – I had to be careful when writing my script and talking because when following the defamation law you can’t: lower the person in the minds of right-thinking members of society, injures the person’s job reputation, causes a person to be shunned or avoided, and exposes a person to hatred or ridicule. So when speaking quotes they had to be correct to the words of the interviewee.

Editors code – because I had to make the video suitable for people under the age of 18 there were some rules you had to follow which is covered by the editor’s code. I had to make sure that the material that I was producing wouldn’t physically, mentally or morally harm people who were under the age of 18 as this would be against the ethical code.