

In December 2017 I had the great pleasure of chairing the Children’s Global Media Summit, and as a final thank you to all who contributed I wanted to share some videos and images of the event with you, along with some of the thoughts I took away.
Dr Patricia Edgar, the World Summit on Media for Children Foundation Chair, reminded us in her opening address that “Every Summit has been driven by the belief that digital has an enormous power to inspire and innovate.”
That power is now under scrutiny as never before, due to the huge influence that the global technology platforms have on young audiences. I’m sure that every Summit has begun by acknowledging the unprecedented period of change at that time.
It’s a natural thing to overestimate the immediate short-term impacts of change while missing the longer term patterns – but what I really appreciated at our Summit was getting beyond the generalities and understanding what is actually happening in children’s media around the world today. It’s certainly helped me to clarify some of the actions and decisions we face in the BBC.
I came across many refreshing and exciting thoughts over our three days. All of our speakers and sessions were brilliant – what follows are some of my personal highlights that emerged around the five themes of freedom, entertainment, education, empowerment and innovation
See the highlights from the Summit in the video below.
We can't believe it's been a week since HRH Prince William graced our stage at The Summit!! If you want to relive his speech and so much more then check out our amazing highlights video! #CGMS17 #Manchester #Highlights #FutureKidsMedia pic.twitter.com/ynNE52jXxf
— CGMS2017 (@CGMS2017) December 13, 2017
Giving children the Freedom to explore the digital world in an appropriate and beneficial way was undoubtedly a key theme across the whole Summit, in addition to having a section by itself. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge asked the Summit to help solve the problems that our youngest audiences face online every day.
We have put the most powerful technology in human history into the hands of our children - yet we do not yet understand its impact on adults, let alone the very young.
Jim Steyer (CEO and Founder, Common Sense Media a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving media lives for children) emphasised this point when he said that global media companies are engaged in "an arms race for your attention", and "devices and phones are becoming like slot machines... they're intentionally designed to get you coming back over and over and over again."
Baroness Beeban Kidron (Founder of the 5Rights initiative for youth digital rights in the UK) had this to add:

"Mark Zuckerberg famously said "Move fast and break things..." - but I don't think they sufficiently considered that one of the things they might break are our children." - Baroness Beeban Kidron
YouTube are one of the most popular global technology platforms with children, and Malik Ducard (Global Head of Family & Learning, YouTube) admitted that that they had been failing to protect young audiences from videos that masquerade as family content, and from inappropriate comments posted on videos for kids.
Malik apologised for the areas in which YouTube had been falling short, and announced that the number of moderators they employ around the world would rise to 10,000. Hearing that was a key illustration for me of how much things have changed in children’s media – I can’t imagine any traditional broadcaster announcing it would employ 10,000 moderators; and it’s frightening to consider that this number may not even be enough.
YouTube’s admission that it needed to tackle this problem, in an arena such as the Summit, was a first. And something else I hadn’t seen before from our industry was the near-unanimous response in our Forum when we asked delegates if they believed that platform providers should be responsible for the content that users upload to their sites. The show of hands was a firm yes.
Here in the BBC, we are helping British children to navigate the digital world with a new initiative called Own It. Tristia Harrison (CEO, TalkTalk, one of the major UK telecoms and internet service providers) called for media and technology sectors to collaborate and to think creatively about what regulation is required.
From the many discussions we had on this subject at the Summit, and of course from the concern we are seeing now in many other places around the world, I have no doubt that this year we will see a wholesale shift in the mindset of the global technology giants, and in how they are regulated.
It’s clear that digital platforms have unleashed a torrent of content, but if you think these Entertainment floodwaters are going to recede any time soon, look at this quote from Xiaoqiu Zhong (President/CEO, UYoung Media Group).

Xiaoqiu Zhong, (President/CEO, UYoung Media Group)
“In China, children's media is still on a relatively small scale…now is the beginning of a golden hour for the children's media in China”.
If Xiaoqui is right, imagine what might be coming next?
Also consider this thought from Lisa Filipelli (Founder of the digital talent management firm Flip Management) “There will probably be a replacement for YouTube any day now”. The rate of change we’ve seen in the last ten years suggests that Lisa is probably correct.
In our Is That Entertainment panel Tracey Keenan (Vice President & General Manager UK & Ireland, WWE) talked about the success that World Wrestling Entertainment has achieved by launching their own digital network, now the world’s second-biggest sporting platform.
“Earlier this decade, we recognised the fact that our fans are five times more likely to consume digital media content and social media content, and twice as likely to be a subscriber to a channel like Netflix... So we looked at how we took that content to that level to super serve our fans."
What I also found interesting in hearing about WWE was the importance placed on storytelling. In this respect I would argue that some things definitely haven’t changed since the first Summit – the need for good narrative never goes away. How stories are best conveyed by the different platforms available is another fascinating question, and certainly one that we’re grappling with in our business.

I’ve deliberately followed Education with Empowerment, because for me the two things are closely linked – in many ways education is empowerment for children, and we also want to always be mindful of the cultural messages that our content sends or reinforces.
Unboxing Boys and Girls was a fascinating panel discussion about gender influences. What I took away from the overall session that both girls and boys should be allowed to be vulnerable in different ways. Male characters should show that it is okay to be emotionally vulnerable, and female characters should be flawed and human.
The potential harms of social media are rarely out of the headlines at present, so it was helpful to be reminded of its positive potential too. While In Conversation writer and satirist Siyanda Mohutsiwa remarked that social media gives young people a platform to air political views and be rewarded for them, rather than feeling pushed aside by a hierarchical society in which they are viewed as not as wise as their elders.
You Can’t Be What You Can’t See emphasised the need for all organisations to embrace diversity, as it inevitably makes both creative and economic sense – and there was a great suggestion in the session that we all take an immediate next step: make a connection with or mentor someone who is completely different to you
Finally, I was struck by this remark captured by our wonderful artist Myro in her window drawings, during the Rise of the Machines session: “What are the cultural biases that are going into AI today that will only be amplified over the coming years i.e. are the machines going to be straight white men?”
I believe that children’s media has always set a high standard onscreen for reflecting diversity. Internationally we have recently seen increasing political and social tensions around race, while perversely many countries are becoming increasingly diverse – heading in many cases towards a situation where no single ethnic group has a majority. It’s essential that children’s media carries on being a positive example of how to reflect the real make-up of societies, and that our good example informs the debate on AI technology as it becomes more prevalent and powerful.
In his keynote the BBC’s Director-General Tony Hall has proposed that we form a coalition across the industry and across borders to find ways to reach out and empower children whose voices are seldom heard. We will be following up on this soon, and you may find me getting in touch with you in the coming months.
Thanks for being a part of CGMS 2017.
On behalf of the whole CGMS17 team, thank you for being part of the conversation. We hope to see you again in three years' time!
You can view more of the keynotes, panel sessions and discussions on the BBC website here.