When the novel began in the 18th Century, there was a moralpanic that women's imaginations would be "enflamed", says former children's laureate Michael Rosen.
Even as the country's overprotective parents whip themselves up into a moralpanic about kid-on-kid cruelty, the numbers don't point to any explosion of abuse.
This programme smacked of sensationalism and 'moral panic' a well known sociological phenomenon that the press use to instil fear into the population and increase ratings and sales.