Goverment is failing children say Women’s Forum.
By Anthony Barich
THE Federal Government’s response to a Senate Committee’s report on ‘Sexualisation of children in the contemporary media’ falls well short of addressing a problem that is leading to self-harm among young girls, Womens Forum Australia says.
Lynne Pezzullo, a director of the independent think tank WFA, told The Record that the media’s premature sexualisation of children, often girls, has “severe and broad-ranging implications” for the target audience.
After receiving 163 submissions, the Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts tabled a report in June 2008 with 13 recommendations.
The Senate Inquiry was initiated after The Australia Institute (AI) released its controversial 2006 paper Corporate paedophilia – sexualising children by advertising and marketing, naming corporate giants including David Jones, which attempted to sue but has since dropped its case against the AI.
The Senate Inquiry’s report called on Free TV Australia and the Advertising Standards Bureau to consider establishing a complaints ‘clearing house’ on media and advertising.
Following these recommendations, the Federal Government encouraged programs to help children learn how to build healthy relationships on August 20.
Ms Pezzullo said that while it had good ideas, the report overall “waters down the concern reflected by the community and the evidence presented by child development experts”.
This watering down reflects the fact that the Senate Inquiry report’s recommendations were not strong enough, she said.
She said that emergency departments of hospitals are experiencing rising admissions of 12 to 13-year-old girls from eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa.
“Our research shows a strong correlation between magazines that have overly sexualised images that portray the female body in objectifying ways and cognitive development, relationship problems, depression, anxiety and self-harm,” she said.
She added that the recommended self-regulation does not go far enough to address “a serious problem of an absolute barrage of internet risks, billboard advertising, premature sexualisation of kids and clothing retailing including inappropriately labelled little girls’ underwear”.
She said that the media-bred culture is helping incarcerated paedophiles feel validated.
“That’s a real concern, that we’re somehow giving commission for the exploitation of our children,” she said.
The Australian Childhood Foundation’s (ACF) Joe Tucci tabled its own research during the submission period on children’s stresses and anxieties.
He said many children felt the adult world was “intruding too much into their lives, leaving them worried”.
The ACF believes the flood of sexualised messages is contributing to an increase in the number of children who are “engaging in problem sexual behaviour with other children”. The Australian Press Council’s (APC) submission to the Senate Inquiry said it is preferable to address the issue of the sexualisation of children by way of self-regulatory mechanisms such as professional codes of conduct, rather than to impose censorship restrictions that have the potential to result in unintended restrictions on freedom of the press. Ms Pezzullo said that self-regulation – the status quo – has shown to be ineffective in ensuring greater corporate social responsibility.
The APC said it believes that newspapers and magazines in Australia, “in the vast majority of instances, deal responsibly with material relating to children”, evidenced by the fact that it has never been called upon to issue an adjudication concerning the sexualisation of children.