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By Dominic Casciani
BBC News
Children are being increasingly exposed to sexual imagery and their parents
have limited opportunities to stop it, a report for the Home Office warns.
The report calls for tougher regulation of sexual imagery in adverts and a ban
on selling "lads' mags" to under-16s.
It also recommends selling mobile phones and games consoles with parental
controls automatically switched on.
Author Dr Linda Papadopoulos said there was a clear link between sexualised
imagery and violence towards females.
Her report said the material children were being exposed to included the growth
of lads' mags and pornography on mobile phones, through to big-name fashion
brands using sexual imagery to advertise clothes targeted at young teenagers.
'Distorting perceptions'
The report said this "drip-drip" exposure was distorting young people's
perceptions of themselves, encouraging boys to become fixated on being macho
and dominant, while girls in turn presented themselves as sexually available
and permissive.
One outcome had been the rise of sexual bullying in which girls felt compelled
to post topless or naked pictures on social networks, it added.
Both the images we consume and the way we consume them are lending credence
to the idea that women are there to be used and that men are there to use them
Linda Papadopoulos
"Unless sexualisation is accepted as harmful, we will miss an important
opportunity to broaden young people's beliefs about where their values lies,"
said Dr Papadopoulos, a psychologist.
The report's 36 recommendations include calling for games consoles, mobile
phones and some computers to be sold with parental controls already switched
on.
This would allow families to automatically filter which on-demand services and
online material their children can use.
Other recommendations include:
parlours
websites
marketing" they believe sexualises young children.
Dr Papadopoulos said there should also be symbols to show when a published
photograph had been digitally altered - such as pictures of celebrities
manipulated to make them appear thinner.
She also recommends giving the Advertising Standards Authority the power to act
against sexualised imagery appearing within commercial websites, such as
provocative photo-shoots used by clothing chains targeting teenagers.
Dr Papadopoulos said: "The evidence gathered in the review suggests a clear
link between consumption of sexualised images, tendency to view women as
objects and the acceptance of aggressive attitudes and behaviour as the norm.
"Both the images we consume and the way we consume them are lending credence to
the idea that women are there to be used and that men are there to use them."
The review forms part of the Home Office's broader attempts to have a louder
public debate about how to combat violence against women and girls.
Both Labour and the Conservatives are examining the issues. Tory leader David
Cameron said earlier this month that he would clamp down on irresponsible
advertising targeted at children.
He also mooted the idea that parents should be able to complain about offensive
marketing tactics used by companies, via a specially set-up website.
Such moves were needed to stop children being "bombarded" with inappropriate
material, he said.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: "We know that parents are concerned about the
pressures their children are under at a much younger age, which is why we have
already committed to a number of the recommendations in this report.
Parental control
"Changing attitudes will take time but it is essential if we are going to stop
the sexualisation which contributes to violence against women and girls."
Deputy Children's Commissioner for England, Sue Berelowitz, said the report was
excellent, but said responsibility did not only lie with the media.
"Parents need to be stepping in and taking control, they need to be imposing
good boundaries, they need to know what their children are watching, people
need to be really careful about children having private access to the internet
in their bedrooms," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at Kent University, said society as a
whole and adults were to blame.
He said: "The whole of society is hypersexualised - sex becomes the common
currency through which adults make their way in the world and continually send
a signal to children that sex is all that matters.
"One of the big problems that we are faced with is that increasingly adults
have lost the capacity to draw a line between their own attitudes and those of
children and increasingly we're recycling adult attitudes about sex through the
prism of children."