Mediawatch have just launched a booklet called “Children and the Media - Learning by example?” It’s a very practical guide for anyone who wants to protect children from harmful and offensive audiovisual material. The launch coincides with an Ofcom report that shows that children are being exposed to more swearing and violence in the media than ever before.

We thought the Panorama programme last week was great. In an experiment with a class of primary school children they removed TV and computer screens from the children’s homes, and monitored the effects on school and home life.

Members of a School Parliament told Shadow Minister for Children, Anne McIntosh MP, that they had voted 13-0 in favour of the motion ‘Children nowadays spend too long in front of the TV and computer games.’ The Shadow Minister met members of the Millbank Primary School Parliament at our book launch in London today.