BBC World Service, supported by Angelina Jolie, is extending the BBC My World series with special digital content about the Coronavirus pandemic, aimed specifically at a young teen audience.
Angelina Jolie has made a statement in her role as Executive Producer of BBC My World, below.

The new content will be released over the coming weeks on the BBC My World YouTube channel. It will also be distributed across the BBC’s global platforms including our 42 language services. This follows on from a Coronavirus Special episode which aired at the weekend. The digital content will cover:

Media education - how to spot harmful misinformation
Young people’s questions put to BBC experts, particularly on health
Vlogs and experiences from young people in lockdown around the world
Tips and coping strategies for home education
The BBC will be sharing this content with UNESCO’S Global Education Coalition, a new website providing remote educational content to kids in lockdown around the world.

The BBC My World: Coronavirus Special is also still available to watch on the BBC My World YouTube channel, BBC iPlayer (UK only), and BBC Reel.

This follows the announcement made recently by BBC Director General Tony Hall about the BBC’s plans to continue to inform, educate, and entertain during unprecedented times.

BBC My World is a global show for young audiences produced by the BBC World Service which launched in January 2020. It seeks to explain the stories behind the news, and provide facts and information for young people to make up their own minds about international issues. The programme is presented by Radzi Chinyanganya and Nomia Iqbal.

This is a difficult time for young people, with over 850 million out of education worldwide so far, and many living locked down and isolated. The Coronavirus crisis means the need for trusted news and information reaching them is more important than ever.

Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service Group, says: “This is an unprecedented situation; so many school age children and young people are now out of schools, but the need has never been greater for them to have access to trusted and accessible information about Coronavirus, and for educators to use that content in remote learning. The BBC World Service will bring its ability to report the truly global scale of this challenge, into creating meaningful and relevant content for our young audiences. We will be reaching out to young people from across the globe, hearing about their experiences, and sharing the information they need to live healthy and productive lives during this difficult time. Continuing production of this successful programme feels like the right thing to do in the circumstances.”

Angelina Jolie, Executive Producer, BBC My World, says: “Children have not been out of school on this scale since the Second World War. This is something that throughout their lifetimes, they will remember. It is something that older generations, for all their other reference points, have not experienced. The way children go through this time - from the tools and information they can access to the ways they can communicate to and help each other - will be unique to their generation. We want to help kids to have access to trusted content and tools that will be useful to them during the pandemic: including helping them to seek out fact-based and reliable news, question the information they receive, and learn from each other’s experiences.”

This new release of content comes during a period described as an ‘Infodemic’ by the World Health Organisation, who have said that 'information hygiene' is almost as important as the basic advice around hand washing and social distancing. BBC My World seeks to help young people to avoid sharing potentially harmful disinformation, hoax health claims and bogus cures.

BBC My World is a co-production between BBC World Service and Executive Producer, Angelina Jolie, Microsoft Education and BBC Learning. It draws on the independent, global reporting of the BBC World Service. The BBC retains editorial control over all content.

There is a bespoke learning segment to accompany each episode of BBC My World, as well as additional lesson plans created by BBC Learning, all of which is available through Microsoft Education for a global audience of educators. The content will help the teaching of media literacy in schools in every region of the world.

More background below.