Let them grow up gracefully (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Let them grow up gracefully

8:24am Wednesday 8th December 2010 in Behind the News By Emma Clayton

Taking her young daughters shopping often turns out to be a depressing experience for Lisa Findley.

“I’m sick of high-heeled shoes and strappy tops bearing slogans like ‘boyfriend magnet’ and ‘mini babe’ on children’s clothing rails,” says the Shipley mum.

“My girls are seven and ten – far too young for sexy clothes – yet sometimes I struggle to find something appropriate for them.”

Lisa is also uncomfortable with some TV programmes her daughters watch. “Singers and bands doing sexually-explicit dances are often on children’s TV shows. I don’t want the girls exposed to it, but their friends watch these shows, so it’s difficult,” she says.

The issue of sexually-provocative clothing and TV exposure for children is taken seriously by organisations representing parents.

Online support group Mumsnet’s Let Girls Be Girls campaign grew from concerns that “an increasingly sexualised culture was dripping, toxically, into the lives of children”. The campaign calls on retailers not to sell products exploiting premature sexualisation.

There was an outcry from Netmums when a high street retailer brought out padded bikinis for seven-year-olds, a range which was withdrawn following parents’ protests and media coverage.

Nicola Lamond of Netmums said: “The majority of parents feel we should let children be children and feel uneasy with pressure from the media and advertisers for them to grow up too soon.

“There’s a big difference between young girls trying on their mum’s high heels and make-up when playing in the house and the rising availability of ‘adult’ clothes on the high street for young children.”

This week, Mothers’ Union chief executive Reg Bailey was invited to chair an independent review of advertising and retailing, commissioned by Children’s Minister Sarah Teather, which could lead to a new code of conduct for age-appropriate marketing, and the prosecution of firms failing to comply.

The review is also expected to consider new rules preventing sexually-explicit music performances shown on TV at times when young children are watching.

It follows concerns about provocative clothing for young girls, including padded bras, high-heeled shoes and pyjamas featuring suggestive slogans, and products such as pole-dancing games in high street stores.

More recently there have been reports about sexually-explicit, inappropriately-dressed pop stars performing on TV for young audiences.

Launching the Government’s drive to curb the sexualisation of children, the Children’s Minister urged traders to be responsible during the Christmas shopping period.

Parents’ concerns led to the Mothers’ Union’s Bye Buy Childhood campaign, aimed at empowering families to challenge the sexualisation of childhood.

Sheila Scott, of Bradford Diocesan Mothers’ Union said: “We have been successful in getting a retailer to remove inappropriate girls clothing. This kind of retailing has come to the fore over the last couple of years.”

The Mothers’ Union research found that 80 per cent of parents are concerned that sexualised content in television, films, magazines and the internet is too easily accessed by children and makes them sexually aware too young.

“Parents are worried about the way children are being treated,” says Sheila. “Commercialisation has an adverse effect on all areas of a child’s life; their physical and mental health, emotional wellbeing, values, educational development and relationships with family and peers.”

The Mothers’ Union is calling on marketing, media and retailers not to take advantage of children’s inexperience to sell to them, nor to market or display goods of a sexualised nature to children under 16.

Rosemary Kempsell, worldwide president of Mothers’ Union said: “Brands deliberately encourage a culture of ‘pester power’ or use manipulative techniques such as recruiting young people as conduits for peer-to-peer marketing. This is having a far-reaching effect on children’s values, and family life.

“Marketers play on the need that children have to fit in with their friends, to belong. We believe exploiting children for profit is wrong.”

She called for a “cultural shift”, with new codes of practice ensuring that childhood “is a respected, creative time rather than predominantly a marketing opportunity”.