Curbs advised on sexualised imagery and marketing
Catherine Gaunt
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Children should be taught 'digital literacy' from the age of five, a Home Office-commissioned report into the sexualisation of children recommends.
Psychologist Linda Papadopoulos carried out a review into how sexualised images and messages could be affecting the development of children and young people.
The report highlights how pornographic images have become part of mainstream culture, with children exposed at an increasingly early age through mobile phones, computer games and the internet.
The report's 36 recommendations will be considered by the Government. They include an online 'one-stop-shop' so the public can report concerns about irresponsible marketing that sexualises children; ensuring games consoles are sold with parental controls already switched on; banning sexist and stereotyped images of women from billboards; and letting music videos featuring sexual posing or sexually suggestive lyrics only be broadcast after the 'watershed'.
Read the report at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/ Sexualisation-young-people.pdf.
