My Lords, I am tempted to suggest that perhaps there ought to be some regulations regarding the times that we can perform, so that we know when we will start and finish and that we are being safeguarded correctly—but clearly that is not going to happen.
I went along to an all-party group looking at children and young performers in the media. I did not realise the problems that not only children face in terms of safeguarding. I am being told to shut up—you see, I cannot even perform.
I will make three very quick points. First, the legislation that was quite rightly introduced in the early 1960s was to protect children, but since then history has moved on. Times have moved on. Never mind a few television channels, we have hundreds of them. We are seeing the law being broken. There are television shows that are breaking the law. There are others that are playing by the outdated 1960s regulations. For example, a poor lad wins a talent competition, but because the witching hour has passed, he has to sit in the audience and cannot be part of the winning group.
I remind noble Lords of the three concepts that my noble friend Lady Benjamin spoke about: consistency, transparency and making sure that safeguarding happens. Currently, safeguarding does not happen. If we take only one thing from this rather truncated discussion, it should be that safeguarding children has to be not only about safeguarding them as individuals but about safeguarding their opportunities. It cannot be right that children in some local authorities are allowed to take part while in other local authorities they are not.
When the Minister replies—briefly, no doubt—I ask him to consider how we can make this happen, because we cannot have legislation trying to protect our young people that goes back to the early 1960s. I had lots more to say, but perhaps I can save that for another time—or, hopefully, not.