Rated PG
Anastasia De Waal, 7 March 2010
An infatuation with various teenage boy bands, combined with aspirations to become the next big concert pianist, made for a tricky case of parental censorship when I requested the score of the latest ‘Hanson’ album for my eleventh birthday.
Suffice it to say that the request was denied. As far as I was concerned, the lyrics were undecipherable (hoarse male voices didn’t make for easy translation) and I hadn’t the faintest idea why the songs were ‘unsuitable’. They just were. I promptly put the radio on, turned up the volume and attempted to find out what I was missing out on.
The early sexualisation of children has captured the attention of politicians throughout Whitehall and the recent publication of a report commissioned by the Home Office has provoked heads to turn to potential solutions. From age restrictions for ‘lads’ mags’ to obligatory parental controls on game consoles, author of the report, Linda Papadopoulous, grapples with an age-old problem aggravated by a generation of young MTV and internet junkies. Many recommendations echo Tanya Byron’s sentiments made in a similar such study: the need for a culture of responsibility.
But just who is going to accept this responsibility?
From targeting industries for licentious advertising and better educating children on the irrelevance (and impracticability) of a top-heavy-tiny-waist physique in a real relationship, to emphasising the link between increased sexualisation and violence and the need for early parental intervention, Papadopoulous judiciously covers all bases in her observations. This birds-eye-view, however, is problematic. Imposing age restrictions on unsuitable material appears to be a popular one-stop-shop. It provides practical, unequivocal advice to advertisers and relevant venders and parents are presented with tangible support when curiosity gets the better of their offspring. But what are the implications of age restrictions on children? Forging identities through their teenage years, the young and impressionable are led to believe that, while they are too young now, one day lads’ mags, ‘Lolita beds’ and the like will be quite suitable.
David Cameron doesn’t do any better either. Though he specifically targets parents in his condemnation of the ‘inappropriate sexualisation’ of children, his proposed plan to provide parents with a forum in which they can voice concerns is just a way of passing the buck to the Advertising Standards Agency. Just as we’re trying to counter the glamour of the top-heavy, we should also avoid a top-down approach.
Instead of asking whether a child would prefer a leather-clad dominatrix Barbie complete with temporary tattoos, or Barbie in pigtails and pink accessories resembling Britney Spears circa 1998, parents should surely think twice – and move on to the next aisle.
Annaliese Briggs