Bailey Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood: Final report published

A six-month independent review into the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood, led by Reg Bailey, Chief Executive of Mothers’ Union, has been published. It has listened to parents’ concerns about the barriers they face in bringing up their children.

The report’s recommendations are based on parents’ concerns and are intended to support them, make sure their views are taken more seriously by businesses and broadcasters, and help children understand the potential dangers they face.

 The recommendations include:

•  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 to prevent children buying sexually explicit videos and guide broadcasters over when to show them.
• Covering up sexualised images on the front pages of magazines and newspapers so they are not in easy sight of children.
• Making it easier for parents to block adult and age-restricted material from the internet by giving every customer a choice at the point of purchase over whether they want adult content on their home internet, laptops or smart phones.
• Retailers offering age-appropriate clothes for children – the retail industry should sign up to the British Retail Consortium’s new guidelines which checks and challenges the design, buying, display and marketing of clothes, products and services for children.
• Restricting outdoor adverts containing sexualised imagery where large numbers of children are likely to see them, for example near schools, nurseries and playgrounds.
• Giving greater weight to the views of parents in the regulation of pre-watershed TV, rather than viewers as a whole, about what is suitable for children to watch.
• Banning the employment of children under 16 as brand ambassadors and in peer-to-peer marketing, and improving parents’ awareness of advertising and marketing techniques aimed at children.