Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,28 Nov 2018,53 mins

Mel B, Children and Gambling, Nuns

Woman's Hour

Available for over a year

Mel B, or Melanie Brown, has been in the spotlight for over 20 years when she achieved global fame as “Scary Spice” from the Spice Girls. The group was the best-selling female band of all time. Since then she's embarked on solo music projects, has been a television presenter and has now published an autobiography called Brutally Honest. She talks to Jenni about her breathtakingly candid account of drug and alcohol abuse as well as painful relationships. You know what fruit machines are but what about loot boxes? Or skins gambling? Today we talk about children and betting and ask: when does gaming cross the line and become gambling? We ask the question because new research says that 39% of 11 to 16 year olds gambled in the last year. Guardian Games Editor Keza MacDonald and Dr Heather Wardle from the Gambling & Place research hub join Jenni to discuss what parents should do about it. A global organization of Catholic nuns has denounced the “culture of silence and secrecy” around sexual abuse in the Church. In a recent statement pegged to the U.N.’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the International Union of Superiors General is urging sisters who've been abused to report the crimes to police and people in charge. Professor Karlijn Demasure and journalist, Joanna Moorhead join Jenni to talk about it.

Programme Website
More episodes