Media matters

The exclusion of children’s voices from the media delays the realisation of not only their rights, but the rights of adults and others groups too, according to one of Europe’s leading human rights champions.

Thomas Hammarberg, a Swedish diplomat and UN senior expert on human rights in Transnistria, the breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova, says children will almost always have an intellectual interpretation of their circumstances and how they can be improved or changed – often more incisive and interesting than that of the adults who put themselves forward to speak on their behalf.

And yet their voices are rarely sought by the media and even less often reported.

This is a pity for consumers of newspapers, magazines and broadcast media who are missing out on the vibrancy of young people’s views, says Hammarberg.

“But much more importantly it is leaving a critical voice out of the picture on lots of issues and it is delaying the development of democracy.”

Hammarberg is a hugely important voice in Europe on human rights and has advised Governments and NGOs on migrant rights, Islamophobia, LGBT rights, Roma and Traveller rights, as well as extensively on children’s rights.

Speaking from his home in Sweden, the former journalist speculates that the paucity of children’s voices in stories that concern them must be due to a belief on the part of journalists that children are unable to speak for themselves, or that they shouldn’t speak for themselves, or that they’ll just be too difficult to talk to. Some adult journalists are perhaps even a little afraid of speaking to children.

“There is a tendency to have adults speak for them. I think it is partly a sense of wishing to protect children, a fear they might be manipulated by journalists, but in my experience if it is done properly and children are given a chance they can give a lot of information and insight that adults cannot give because adults just don’t have the experience the child or young person has.

“I know that children and young people have perspectives adults just cannot have, on things like schools and how they function, discipline, what the problems are; the internet and social media; bullying and how to stop it; why it’s important to be able to play; where playgrounds should be and what should be in them.

“Children have very strong opinions on these sorts of things and often they are seen as not having an opinion at all.

“They are reduced to being objects or even worse, victims.”

Social class is a factor in which children do get heard, he says, and how they are portrayed – much as with adult voices.

Middle-class and upper middle-class children are more likely to be represented in mainstream media, and to be represented positively, whereas poorer children are more likely to be represented as problematic and less likely to be heard.

“And these children often have more important things to say. Children in poverty, in State care, asylum seekers and migrant children, from dysfunctional families, they have important voices.”

Perhaps they are seen as too vulnerable, too open to being manipulated by media but again, he insists, when approached with skill and some common sense, these children’s voices can be heard and are critically important to society’s understanding of what is going on for them.

“They really are heard too little,” Hammarberg says.

Not only is it important to the societal audience that they are heard, it is critical to their sense of their voices, their lives, of their selves, being important, he says.

“It helps to give them a feeling they have a stake in what is being decided for their futures. To not include their voice delays the process of democratisation of society.”

When asked to explain this, he says simply: “Children grow up.”

Encouraging the participation of children in the social discussion encourages them from that early age to expect to be heard, to participate and to engage in the ongoing discussion about their society, into adulthood, he argues.

"We understand how much the adult is formed from a critical early age." In particular, to encourage marginalised children and young people to have a voice in the media will be to encourage them to expect to have a voice as adults.
"Excluding children's voices delays progress in the realisation of not only their but adults' human rights," he says.

He also believes the media should do more to encourage children and young people to contribute, with articles and reports.

“Children are also consumers of media. It is a very good idea to encourage them to contribute, because they will then read those newspapers or magazines and continue to as they grow into adulthood.

“This is obviously attractive to media organisations which need to increase circulation.”

It also encourages children and young people to be interested in news and media, which again is empowering and an important component of democratic society, Hammarberg adds.