Arts: COULD YOU WRITE FOR SKY NEWS?

SKY NEWS have launched a nationwide competition for under 18s to write about a television story they watched this year.

Sky Witness Youth is part of Sky News' efforts to encourage younger viewers to tune into news and current affairs.

The website www.sky.com/skywitnessyouth asks young people, in three age groups (under 10, 11-14 and 15-17) to write a 150-word story on a piece of television news they watched this year. The best stories will be posted online and three winners will be selected by a panel at Sky News to win a pocket-sized digital camera. Winners and runners-up will also receive certificates.

Steve Bennedik, Head of Sky News Interactive, said: ``Sky Witness Youth is designed to encourage younger viewers to get involved with Sky News and get them thinking about the news stories they've watched and the impact it made on them. It's a great opportunity for youngsters to tell us what they think about the news and how they think the media covered the story.''

Full details and entry forms are at www.sky.com/skywitnessyouth

Closing date: December 12, 2003LAST YEAR'S WINNERIF you asked someone what came to mind when you mentioned `child abduction' they would probably be reminded of the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, which happened in August. This was an extremely tragic experience for the families and friends involved and drew the public's attention to the problem, however no one could have anticipated the public response.

This was something that happened in one small area of the country concerning very few people who knew the girls well. Yet we saw huge queues outside churches to sign books of condolence and coach tours taking detours through the town of Soham.

Even though these people were just trying to show their support, it strikes me as odd why they all felt the need for this.

From 2001-2002 there have been 583 child abductions, some of which were parental abductions, but none-the-less a startling figure, seeing as in the last year only four cases have been greatly publicised, that of Sarah Payne, Milly Dowler, Danielle Jones and Holly & Jessica.

All of these stories hit the headlines on the news and in the papers, and yes, people's attention should be drawn to these incidents, but the way in which cases like this are presented does tend to make people feel more involved than they actually are.

People may have seen the coverage and thought that if they hadn't done anything, they might have looked insensitive. If you ask me it should have been brought to people's attention in a much more informative way, rather than this emotive manner. PETER, 17, SHEFFIELD