Sexy women who wear red lipstick are BANNED from children's TV says BBC editor

The BBC's female children’s TV presenters are banned from wearing red lipstick or looking ‘too sexy’ on air, a senior editor says.

Hosts including former Blue Peter star Helen Skelton and CBBC presenter Dionne Bromfield have been told they must be ‘fantastic female role models’ and avoid dressing in provocative outfits.

Melissa Hardinge – who is an executive editor at the corporation’s children’s channel CBBC – said programme makers are careful to protect young viewers from sexualised imagery and bad language.

Hosts including former Blue Peter star Helen Skelton and CBBC presenter Dionne Bromfield have been told they must be 'fantastic female role models'

Talking at a Bafta panel event on the future of children’s television, she revealed she takes swearing guidelines so carefully she once spent 20 minutes discussing the word ‘fart’.

She said: ‘Obviously sexualisation of girls is something we take incredibly seriously. We try and show fantastic female role models.

‘I go onto the floor of Friday Download and make them take their red lipstick off, the presenters.

‘The older end of our six to twelve age groups are very interested in relationships, and we have to show positive role models and the correct way of going about having relationships.’

 

Featuring a mixture of pop music, film news and style advice, Friday Download is an hour-long weekly show that features a panel of hosts including singer Miss Bromfield and actress Shannon Flynn, both 17.

When asked whether the BBC pays attention to what female presenters wear, Mrs Hardinge said: ‘We take that very seriously.

'We know that a lot of young girls will look at how our presenters are dressed, and no they shouldn’t look too sexy.’

She also discussed new film classifications introduced by the British board of Film Classification, which promised it would crack down on bad language and violence in U-rated films earlier this month.

‘The problem is that certain words in some families are fine, and some are not.

‘I have sat in editorial forums at the BBC where we have spent 20 minutes talking about whether the word ‘fart’ is acceptable or not. It depends on the context and whether you can use a euphemism.’

She added: ‘The portrayal of violence is a very, very sensitive thing. We have very strict editorial guidelines to try and steer the right course.

‘For anything that can be easily copied using a domestic implement, for example, we have to take our responsibility as a public service broadcaster very seriously and find the lines.’

Eric Huang, development director at digital media company Made in Me, told the audience he recalled seeing Bugs Bunny shooting Elmer Fudd repeatedly in the face as a child, in a ‘casual portrayal of violence’.

He added: ‘It was OK then, but not now. Some of it is determined by fashion and what we think is ok today.’