The series, featuring a variety of naked bodies, has got some viewers on the back foot. The programme may be the subject of a separate investigation by the UK’s Communications Authority.
A new Naked Education series featuring nudity and promoting body positivity has caused a stir in the UK. The series discusses body diversity with young people aged 14-16 – through the bodies of adults who strip naked in front of young people.
On social media, the *Naked Education* programme has been called “perverse”, among other things.
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is considering launching an investigation into the content of the programme, reports Variety magazine. Immediately after the first episode of the programme aired, Ofcom received nearly 1,000 complaints about adults showing their naked bodies to children.
The showtime of the series that started last week is also different from usual. In Great Britain, programs containing nudity have traditionally not been seen on the screen before 9 p.m. The broadcast time of the *Naked Education* series is 8 p.m.
Defenders: countering the distorted expectations of the media
People of different sizes, shapes and ages have been seen in the series, not just young, slender people who conform to the traditional concept of beauty. The series discusses, for example, aging and penis size.
– No one who claims that Channel 4’s *Naked Education* promotes pedophilia or child abuse has not watched the series themselves. The program deals with dangerous myths and harmful imagery related to body image, which teenagers constantly come across.
According to Katz, \”it is difficult to come up with a better example of how a state-owned TV channel could better challenge the current distorted image that causes anxiety and feelings of inadequacy in young people\”.
– Now is the time to normalize different bodies and talk about what our bodies go through.
Few Britons fit into traditional beauty fashion
Among the defenders of the series is also Adam Miller of the Metro magazine. He writes that the program is not harmful to children and says that he has accepted his own body only now, at the age of 35.
– Since I was a teenager, I’ve been scared to death of having to be naked and imagined being alone with my feelings. If I wasn’t ashamed of my sharp protruding ribs, then my dry skin and moles filling my back. Or my own thinness, writes Miller.
Weight is a touchy subject for many British youth. According to a survey carried out by the country’s health authorities last year, 25.9 percent of the country’s population is obese and 37.9 percent overweight.
Nudity has also been discussed at Yle. Listen to the Naked podcast: