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Letting children be children
A range of proposals to help prevent the sexualisation of children by retailers and popular culture has been welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Bailey Review “Letting children be children”, published today, calls on businesses and media to play their part in ending the drift towards an increasingly sexualised ‘wallpaper’ that surrounds children.
The six-month review was commissioned by the Prime Minister and carried out by Reg Bailey, the head of the Mothers’ Union.
The review took evidence from more than 2,000 parents and 500 young people as well as 120 separate organisations.
Reg Bailey suggested a raft recommendations including providing parents with one single website to make it easier to complain about any programme, advert, product or service, putting age restrictions on music videos and ensuring retailers offer age-appropriate clothes for children.
Welcoming the review, Mr Cameron said we should look to put “the brakes on an unthinking drift towards ever greater commercialisation and sexualisation”.
The PM said he welcomed moves to make it easier to block adult content on mobile phones, ban “raunchy” billboard posters near schools and bar the use of youngsters to market products.
And he said he would summon retailers, advertisers, broadcasters, magazine editors, video games and music industry chiefs and regulators for a summit in October to discuss progress.
Read more: PM’s letter to Reg Bailey
