Fury as BBC broadcasts transgender show for children featuring a 11-year-old schoolboy who takes puberty-stunting medication
- Campaigners warn show could sow 'seeds of confusion' among children
- Politicians slam Beeb and demand show be taken off CBBC website immediately
- BBC defends actions saying its content aims to 'reflect true life' of youngsters
FURIOUS parents have lashed out at the BBC following a children's programme which features a schoolboy who takes sex-change drugs.
The organisation has been accused of acting 'irresponsibly' over the programme which is available to watch on the CBBC website.
Parents say a transgender storyline is inappropriate for their children with campaigners warning the programme, 'Just A Girl', could 'sow the seeds of confusion' among youngsters.
The programme depicts an 11-year-old’s struggle to get hormones that stunt puberty, making it easier to have sex-change surgery in the future.
Writing on the mumsnet website, where hundreds of people have vented their anger over the show, one mother said her daughter had become worried after seeing the video. She said the girl, who likes playing
football and wearing boys' clothes, had "asked me, anxiously, if that means she was a boy".
Another posted "Completely inappropriate. Please turn it off. Our kids need protecting from this nonsense."
The programme features on the CBBC website, which is aimed at children as young as six, alongside other shows such as The Next Step, Blue Peter and Danger Mouse.
Just A Girl is the fictional video diary of a child who calls herself ‘Amy’ and dresses as a girl.
In the half-hour programme, Amy – played by an actress – reveals she was born a boy called Ben but has already started using puberty-halting drugs.
Speaking to the family campaigner Norman Wells said: "It is irresponsible of the BBC to introduce impressionable children as young as six to the idea that they can choose to be something other than their biological sex."
The controversial show has also attracted the criticism of politicians with Tory MP Julian Brazier saying: "This programme is very disappointing and inappropriate. Children are very impressionable and this is going to confuse and worry them."
Tory MP Peter Bone added: ‘It beggars belief that the BBC is making this programme freely available to children as young as six. I entirely share the anger of parents who just want to let children be children.
"It is completely inappropriate for such material to be on the CBBC website and I shall be writing to BBC bosses to demand they take it down as soon as possible."
In the programme Amy is heard saying: ‘When I was born, Mum said Dad was so pleased that he had a boy to take to the football. But Mum knew I was different. She realised early on that I was born in the wrong body.’
She adds: ‘My Mum supported me when I did a PowerPoint presentation to my class about transitioning and that I wasn’t going to come to school in boys’ clothes any more, but girls’ clothes. I wasn’t Ben, I was Amy.’
Later Amy is shown telling a friend, Josh – a boy who wants to be recognised as a girl – that she is on hormone blockers, saying it took ‘ages’ to get them after ‘loads of tests and talks at the clinic’. ‘Once they realised I was trans for real, [I] got them,’ she says. In another entry, Amy tells viewers she has developed a crush on a boy called Liam, but confides: ‘Liam thinks I’m just a girl, but I’m not. I’m trans. And what’s he going to say if he finds out? Stop being my friend? Why? I’m still me, aren’t I?’
Despite the controversy some people have supported the BBC over the programme with some parents on Mumsnet being more positive.
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One wrote: "I don’t believe there is 'too young' for stuff like this. The earlier you teach your children that everyone is different and that nobody is “normal” the better."
Dr Polly Carmichael, a clinical psychologist specialising in transgender children, said: "Raising awareness of these issues is the best way to challenge stigma and discrimination associated with identity issues. Programmes like Just A Girl can contribute to a healthy and informed public discussion."
The BBC said: "Just A Girl is about a fictional transgender character trying to make sense of the world, deal with bullying and work out how to keep her friends, which are universal themes that many children relate to, and which has had a positive response from our audience.
‘CBBC aims to reflect true life, providing content that mirrors the lives of as many UK children as possible."
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