Parents who disagree with the children's channel CBBC running until 9pm can use the "off button", a member of the BBC Trust has said.

The broadcaster's governing body has approved plans to extend the hours of CBBC to 9pm with the proposal drawing a mixed response from audiences.

Children will now be able to watch the channel for two more hours in the evening under the approved plans.

Richard Ayre, trustee and member of the services committee at the BBC Trust, said of the final plan: "Obviously BBC Three has been a really difficult decision. This was quite a difficult decision as well."

He said the public responses were "split pretty much down the middle" between parents who would value an extra two hours in helping them manage their evenings and those who thought it was not desirable to have services aimed at their children after 7pm.

"At the end of the day we had to take a view - do you allow half the audience that doesn't want something to be available to the other half who do want it to prevail? And there is the 'off' button," he said.

Mr Ayre said this is a "partnership" in that the BBC does its best to guarantee what it offers for young children is safe, appropriate and suitable, but parents can also "exercise some discretion about when they want their children to watch it".

BBC Trustee Suzanna Taverne, chair of the Trust's services committee, added: "I think it's important to say that the majority of industry stakeholders were opposed to the change.

"In terms of the respondents to the public consultation I think they were probably quite evenly balanced.

"There were those who took the view that it was a good way of providing a safe place for older children and a welcome extension of the BBC's highly distinctive and successful children's services. There are very much two parts to the argument and we certainly weighed up both sides."

Justine Roberts, chief executive of Mumsnet, said: "Most Mumsnet users are big fans of BBC children's programming; the lack of advertisements, the inclusivity and the overall quality tend to make up for the hallucinatory experience of watching your child's favourite episodes hundreds of times.

"When it comes to extended hours for CBBC, they're mostly bemused by the fuss, because in the main their children watch the programmes on demand via apps or iPlayer services. Of course lots of CBBC's core demographic will be in bed before 9pm (and that's just the exhausted parents), but in the end most Mumsnet users believe it's up to them, not Auntie Beeb, to enforce switch-off times."