BtN: Episode 25 Transcripts 08/09/09
On this week's Behind the News:
· Life on the inside – in a Youth Detention Centre.
· Should ads during kids’ TV be censored?
· And we find out how to bring dead animals to life.
Hi I'm Nathan Bazley welcome to Behind the News.
Also on the show today – is 13 too young to sail solo around the world?
We’ll get to those features in a sec, but first, let’s check the latest news.
The Wire
An earthquake in Indonesia has killed more than 60 people.
The quake was under the ocean just off the island of Java, which is to the north-west of Australia.
It was measured as 7 on the Richter scale which means it was very strong.
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A while ago we told you how a supermarket chain was stocking more free range eggs because consumers were worried about chickens being locked in small cages.
Now there's a warning that some free range eggs are fake.
Critics say one in six eggs labelled as free range is actually from a caged bird.
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And medical experts have warned about a big increase in a disease called whooping cough.
In New South Wales ten thousand people have been infected with the disease since January - more than half of those were children under ten.
They say people should be getting immunisations.
Youth Detention
Reporter: Nathan Bazley
INTRO: OK time for our first feature.
One question we're regularly asked by kids is what happens when kids break the law?
We all know what goes down when you do something wrong at school, but what happens when you get into serious trouble.
Well it's actually something that's been in the news a bit lately because some people reckon kids aren't being treated the right way, so we decided it was time for a closer look.
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: It's 6:30 am and you're seeing a daily wake up call for the inmates in one of Australia's biggest juvenile detention centres outside Sydney.
Fifteen boys live here in this block, although we can't identify any of them, and they are watched constantly by three officers.
Girls are kept in different places.
They have to do everything they are told straight away. No one gets much choice in what they do, or where they go.
Some can be locked in their rooms for up to 18 hours a day.
So how did they end up here?
For every crime there is some form of punishment, but kids are treated differently to adults.
The aim of the youth justice system is to do everything possible to keep kids out of trouble and out of jail.
First up you could be given a warning. But if it's more serious, or you've done it before, you could end you up in something called mediation, which is where you have a talk with the victim, police and your parents to work out a suitable punishment, like a written apology or community service.
But a step up from that and this is where you could end up - a special court for kids.
Here a judge or magistrate decides whether you are guilty or not, then decides a punishment.
NATHAN: Usually a youth court will try to give you as many chances as possible to make amends, but really troubled kids will sometimes end up in juvenile detention. For that to happen they must have committed very serious crimes - like very violent assaults or stealing cars lots of times.
Across Australia, around a thousand kids are locked up in juvenile detention centres like this one every day.
And kids can be in their early teens when they first found themselves in here.
Their stay can be a few months or quite a few years, so they can miss out on a lot. But one thing they don't miss is school.
School is seen as a way to help these kids stay out of trouble once they leave.
Most kids inside get the chance to do classes, as well as practice other job skills.
NATHAN: The whole point of the juvenile justice system is to stop kids turning into lifelong criminals but unfortunately that's not always the result. For example, in NSW, over half of the boys in detention will get in trouble again within a year.
That's led some people to say that juvenile detention centres like this aren't working.
Critics point out a few problems with the system.
Some say putting all these troubled kids together means they're more likely to have a bad influence on each other.
Others say it's because kids don't get enough support to live within the law when they get out.
And some people say it's because the law goes too easy on kids for a start.
It's a controversial debate and one that might get you thinking about what really goes on behind the wire.
Presenter: Doesn’t look like somewhere any kid would want to end up, but it does raise some interesting questions. So, do you think it’s right to lock kids up? Leave a comment on our story.
Next we’re going to look at junk food, but to whet your appetite, let’s do a quiz.
Quiz 1
How much of an average bag of chips is fat?
1. 12%
2. 17%
3. 32%
Answer: 32%
Kids’ Ads
Reporter: Catherine Ellis
INTRO: Yep, it's a bit scary to think about really!
But there is help at hand, because right now Australia is having a health check! The Government wants to improve the country's health and has just finished a big two year report looking at ways to stop people smoking, abusing alcohol and eating too much fatty food.
Part of it involves having tougher rules on junk food ads during kids TV. But as Catherine reports, some health experts reckon the new rules don't go far enough.
CATHERINE ELLIS, REPORTER: Feeling hungry? That's exactly what these ads are designed to do - and Health authorities want them stopped!
The push to ban junk food ads during kids TV has been going for a long time because some people reckon it's contributing to the obesity problem.
CATHERINE: Three in every ten Aussie kids are now overweight or obese and if you stay that way when you grow up, you can get serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
There's a group in charge of keeping a close eye on everything on Television. It's called the Australian Communications and Media Authority - or ACMA.
Part of ACMA's job, is to protect kids from seeing stuff that's inappropriate and it's just spent two years looking at junk food ads.
Its final conclusion was not to ban them because it says there's no proof the ads are linked to obesity.
ACMA has however agreed to toughen up the rules.
So during 'C 'classified programs - that are made especially for kids - they've decided to limit the way advertisers can use popular characters and celebrities to promote stuff.
Commercial stations show on average five hours of 'c' programming a week so most of the time the new rules don't apply and advertisers can still do what they like.
Health authorities aren't happy.
They say the rules don't go far enough - they don't want any junk food ads at all during kids TV.
There are a lot of adults talking about what's best for kids, but how do kids feel?
KID 1: Make the adverts later at night I guess.
KID 2: And there should be more healthier ones so kids want more healthier food and they should make healthier food more interesting.
KID 3: I reckon I would like more healthy ads promoted, less junk food ads and junk food should be given as a treat and not something they should just be abusing.
KID 4: I think maybe at certain times of the day when young children are most likely to be watching TV it's probably not the best idea, but I wouldn't say ban them completely because obviously companies wouldn't be happy about that.
KID 5: I think they show them way too often and during programs that people watch a lot so a lot more people see them and think I want to eat that.
CATHERINE: Do you think it's what influenced you to buy your snack in your hands?
ACMA's review may be over, but it looks like the debate about junk food ads will continue for a long time yet.
Presenter: Well one place you know you won't see any junk food ads is right here on BtN, except for the couple in that story.
Poll
The issue is an interesting one that directly effects you guys, so I think that can be our online poll.
The question is 'Should junk food ads be banned in kids' TV?'
If you want to vote go to our website.
Bullying Opera
Reporter: Sarah Larsen
INTRO: Cyber bullying is an issue that we've talked a lot about this year and we know from your letters in our Guestbook that it's something you guys feel strongly about.
Well you're about to meet some young people who are getting the issue out there, but how they're doing it might surprise you!
SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: This is opera, but probably not as you know it. There are no funny costumes, no wigs and they're singing in English. It's opera by kids, for kids. Some of these guys are experienced opera singers, but for some it’s a new passion. It started with a program called Moving Opera, where professional singers, directors and composers go into schools and give workshops. The kids loved it and wanted to keep performing, so the pros decided to give the kids an opera of their own.
VALENTINE DUBOIS, SINGER: We pretty much all got together in a room and decided what would get young people interested and the main thing people came up with was relevant location and a relevant theme that they would be able to relate to.
The theme they chose was cyber bullying.
REPORTER: It's something you guys probably know all about; how phones and the internet can become tools for bullies and make kids' lives miserable. It's a really serious issue and one that the young opera singers could relate to.
ALANA KLEIN, SINGER: We shared stories and everyone in the group almost had a story about something that had happened to a friend with cyber bullying. There was an incident in school where one of the teacher got a MySpace created on them it wasn't really nice stuff.
SHAUN CHARLES, LIBRETTIST: For me personally, like it's been said, everyone had a story to tell whether they were involved directly or whether it involved someone else. So I would go away from those workshops and every other night there's an incident every night there's a horrific image of bullying captured by a camera phone.
Shaun is a librettist, which is a person who writes the words of an opera. He worked closely with the kids to make sure the opera was in their language.
ALANA KLEIN, SINGER: He'd bring text to us and we'd read it and say, wait a minute we wouldn't say that, so it is written in our language.
Together with a composer, they came up with a story that was just as dramatic and tragic as any classical opera but much more realistic.
KATHERINE O'HALLORAN, SINGER: The story follows a group of students four of them and on their summer holiday they decide they're going to get back at one of their teachers and they do go and create a MySpace account and just the repercussions from that and how it affects the students and the teacher.
It was a great opportunity for these guys - not only to perform but to help create their very own opera. And they reckon there's a message in it for kids and adults.
KATHERINE O'HALLORAN, SINGER: I think everyone will enjoy it I think everyone can take something from it. We're trying to bring people in and try to get rid of some of the stereotypes they have about opera I think it’s really good for the older generation as well to experience and to understand the issues that we're facing.
And maybe in the process they've created some new opera fans.
Presenter: A very different way of getting a point across there, and if you're worried about bullying of any kind there's advice and contacts on our website. Time for another quiz.
Quiz 2
What is the name given to female singers with the highest vocal range?
1. Tenor
2. Soprano
3. Alto
The answer is – soprano.
Tenor is the name given to a male singer with a high vocal range - although there is a classification called countertenor which is even higher.
Museum Animals
Reporter: Nathan Bazley
INTRO: When you go to a museum you see some pretty amazing animals. They might be well and truly dead, but they can look so life-like it's nearly scary!
Have you ever wondered how these exhibits are actually made?
Well some of them used to involve the death of a lot of animals, but these days, technology has come to the rescue to save many lives and the resulting exhibitions help people to think about our environment and the animals which call it home.
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Everyone has seen mummies before - preserved bodies wrapped in cloth that generally come to life in movies and scare everyone.
But did you know that you've probably seen a mummy or two in real life - but these ones are animals!
Okay maybe not like that at all! But if you've ever been to a museum, there they are - genuine preserved animals, without the cloth of course!
And they are there, not for terror and mayhem, but education.
Preserving and mounting animals has to be one of the creepiest concepts around when you think about it, but people have been doing it for hundreds of years.
The technical term is taxidermy and it normally means pulling out all the guts of a dead animal, preserving the skin, then mounting the skin over a mould it so it looks alive.