Weekly News

Fury at sex-change programme that shows transgender 'Ben' dressing up as 'Amy' and is aimed at six-year-old children

The new CBBC show 'Just A Girl' features a transgender story line about a school boy who is taking hormone blockers to make it easier to get a sex change surgery later in life. Angry parents have contacted Mumsnet (the UKs most popular parenting website) to express their opposing views about the programme. In addition, Tory MP Peter Bone describes the show as "completely inappropriate" and that he "shares the anger of parents who want to let children be children."

On the other hand, Dr Polly Carmichael, who is a clinical psychologist and specialises in transgender children, told the Mail that raising awareness is a positive step towards challenging stigma and discrimination.

A spokesman for the BBC said "CBBC aims to reflect true life, providing content that mirrors the lives of as many UK children as possible."

In my opinion, as much as I agree that children should be educated about all aspects of life I feel that they are too impressionable to be watching such shows on TV as it is very likely to confuse them and cause further problems. However I understand what the CBBC is attempting to do and I agree that it might produce positive attitudes towards the transgender topic but I think this show is clearly producing more problems. Furthermore, at the end of the day it is the parents' choice what to show their children and I think their opinions should be taken into consideration by the BBC.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fury-sex-change-programme-shows-9156593

Weekly News

Drugs alert as 16-year-old Shellie Callaghan dies after party

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-37670315

This young girl had access to "ecstasy type tablets" at a house party in Midlothian (Scotland). Officers are now strongly urging people not to take the red pills known as "bugatti veyron" and  "purple ninja turtle". It's been reported that young people in the town were very concerned after the death. This news must have woken up a lot of drug-taking teens to the reality of illegal drugs. Rebecca Russel states "I'm really worried because they can pick them up so easily for almost nothing and they don't realise how dangerous they really are." This highlights how little knowledge teenagers have of illegal substances, they are unaware of the serious harm it can cause them.

News like this is very devastating and alarming as it shows how taking illegal substances at parties has been normalised. However, it also suggests that parents and teachers should be trying harder to show teenagers how unsafe illegal drugs like ecstasy are and that they could cost them their life. I also think more action needs to be taken towards the people who actually sell these drugs to teenagers who clearly have no idea of the side effects, they are illegal drugs for a reason and I think there needs to be more media coverage about it to raise awareness. Especially to people in the younger ages, so that heart breaking situations like this can be prevented.

Weekly News

'Killer clown' with a knife is seen following children to school...

The 'killer clown' phase started off in the US but seems to have reached the UK. Police have now started to issue warnings as they believe this to be part of a large prank.

The most recent clown incident in the UK was spotted in County Darham, when a man dressed as a clown jumped out on four children aged 11 and 12, while they were on their way to school (Hermitage Academy). 

The neighbourhood sergeant Mel Sutherland stated "The children arrived at school understandably upset and distressed by this incident." She also included that "we do not think he intended to harm the children, and as far as we are aware, this is part of the prank." In my opinion, it seems that the police aren't taking these incidents seriously enough, they can't simply see someone carrying a knife in public as 'part of a prank' and more serious actions should be taken.

Stephen King tweeted "Hey, guys, time to cool the clown hysteria--most of em are good, cheer up the kiddies, make people laugh." He is known for instilling a fear of clowns into millions of readers with his character Pennywise.

Source: http://news.sky.com/story/killer-clown-with-a-knife-is-seen-following-children-to-school-in-county-durham-10608500