News: UK's Supernanny Not That "Super" (UN)

Britain faces severe international criticism for imprisoning children as young as 10, tolerating corporal punishment and broadcasting "invasive" reality television shows such as Supernanny.

The UN's committee on the rights of the child (CRC) is due to release its latest assessment of the UK's record of looking after its 13.1 million people aged 17 and under. Areas of concern are likely to include Britain's record on eradicating child poverty, its relatively low age of criminal responsibility, the use of asbos on children and the provision of health services for adolescents.

The UN noted that more children aged between 10 and 14 are being locked up in England and Wales - increasingly for more minor offences - than in any western European country.

One rapporteur, Lucy Smith, queried "the invasion of children's privacy as a result of reality television shows such as Supernanny, which showed children behaving terribly and portrayed them in a terrible light". The use of "ultrasound devices to disperse groups of children ... further infringed on children's right to association". (Full)

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Picture courtesy Channel 4.