Early last month, The Malta Independent had taken the Children’s Commissioner to task for not making public the name of a television programme or programmes that were having a negative impact because they were portraying children in a harmful and inappropriate manner.

The editorial was written in the light of a statement issued by the commissioner, Carmen Zammit, which rightly pointed out these deficiencies and called for action to be taken to protect children’s interests, but stopped short of naming the programmes she was referring to.

Eventually, after this newspaper also sent questions to the commissioner by email, she did reveal the name of the production she was referring to, Five06, which is broadcast on TVM. It is hoped that, since then, there have been discussions involving the Broadcasting Authority and the production team of this series to rectify the situation.

The commissioner seems to have realised that it is not right to point fingers across the board when something is wrong, and in a statement issued last week, she expressed her distaste about an episode of “Issa c-cans”, aired the previous Sunday on Family TV.

This time, she did not keep the name of the programme to herself and neither did she wait for questions from the media to make it public. This time, she named the programme herself without prompting and for this she deserves to be given credit.

In the said programme, there was a candid camera piece in which pranks were played on children. The young ones were called into the studio and, supposedly for rehearsal purposes, they were asked to sing a song. Instead, these children found themselves insulted, mocked and pushed around for the purposes of the prank, while at the same time being filmed.

The studio crew was successful in provoking the children to tears and anger, all in the name of entertainment. One young girl was reduced to uncontrollable tears, while others were visibly shocked with what was happening.

Children, like anybody else, are capable of taking a joke, Ms Zammit remarked, but what took place in the studio amounted to bullying. And, considering that this bullying was being “performed” by adult people whom the children did not know and, worse, was then shown on television, the experience must have been horrendous.

There are two issues that need to be raised. The first is that television productions should take extreme caution when dealing with children. Playing a joke on an adult is probably more acceptable, although some of the jokes that have been played have also gone beyond the limits, but playing it on a child can have serious consequences.

The trauma that these children went through might leave a scar that they will find hard to forget. It is probable that they will think about this experience each time they go on stage or in front of a camera again, and this might block them. It might also affect their behaviour in public too, as they will be asking themselves if people are laughing at them. They might have already felt this when they went to school the following day.

Secondly, what were the parents of these children thinking when they gave their permission for them to be filmed on this candid camera? Did they not realise the repercussions that they were exposing their children to when they accepted their participation? Did they not think that such an experience could have a lasting negative effect on their children?

The Children’s Commissioner did the right thing in expressing her disgust in public. She ought to receive all the necessary support and encouragement to continue monitoring what goes on in the media so as to be able to protect children’s interests in the best way possible.