June 8, 2011. (Romereports.com) Advertisements seem to be everywhere nowadays. On the web, television and on the streets. The problem is some of these images are sexually charged and most of them are often seen by children. Now the UK has decided to make some changes.


Reg Bailey
Chief Executive of the Mother's Union (UK)
“What we are recommending is that the ASA, Advertising Standard Authority, take action to ensure that sexually charged imagery is not in areas where there is a large number of children, visiting the area.”

To prevent the so called “sexualization of children,” UK's  prime minister David Cameron, called for a review on how to manage this problem. After six months, the report titled “Letting Children be Children,” is now released.

One of the recommendations calls for magazines with racy images to be covered up in shelves.  Music videos will be age rated and  moved to later time slots. Currently most of them are not rated and many have explicit profanity.

Reg Bailey
Chief Executive of the Mother's Union (UK)
“Many [parents]were surprised and quite shocked at how demeaning [the videos]were to girls and how they gave boys unrealistic expectations of girls.”

Thousands of people were surveyed for the report, including 2,000 parents, 500 youths and 120 organizations.  Most parents said, they felt helpless. Even if they tried to have a family friendly environment at home, outside, with so many racy ads, they had no control. This review, tries to change that.

Reg Bailey
Chief Executive of the Mother's Union (UK)
“So anything this review does, really wants to address that issue of ´'do we really just want to drift into this more sexualized environment´? It affects everyone, responsible adults as well as children.”

The review also calls for the creation of one specific website, where parents can complain about sexually explicit ads or programming that don't follow these new rules. In October 2011, retailers, advertisers, broadcasters, magazine editors, and music industry directors will meet with government officials to discuss their progress.

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