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The sexualisation of children affects us all

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Education blog: Lynn Richards of the University of Wolverhampton on how the commercialisation of children affects us all as a society.

Education blog: Lynn Richards of the University of Wolverhampton on how the commercialisation of children affects us all as a society:

You may have seen the recent coverage of Reg Bailey's Review of Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood, published on June 6th 2011 - what a furore!

On the one hand, it would seem to appease current parental concerns with regard to the pressures they feel under in raising their children appropriately.

Yet, on the other, more problematic issues seem to be uncovered.

There is the apparent absence of a children's and young people's rights approach, the omission of any consideration of how aggressive commercialisation affects us all and the lack of discussion on what might indeed be meant by the report's title: 'Letting children be children.'

The review suggests that for children to be children, then parents need to be parents.

At first glance this may appear common sense, but upon further scrutiny, it would seem to contain a 'sting in the tail' comment on the responsibilities of parents to refrain from pandering to the wishes and demands of their offspring.

So, while the review offers the view that parents can be complicit in the pressures being applied to children and young people growing up, it also acknowledges them as the 'experts on whether something is appropriate for their children' and advocates that parents' voices should be heard more readily and taken seriously by businesses and broadcasters.

And yet, the voices of children and young people themselves seem marginalised within this review - figures are detailed of the numbers of children and young people consulted, but to what extent their voices have been reflected is hard to extrapolate.

Interestingly, in his foreword to the review, Bailey admits to being impressed by the research conducted by young people through the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England - saying 'they make me believe it really is simple!'

Yet, it is the voices of parents that are emphasised here -the wider issues concerning the needs and desires of children and young people, in terms of their own articulated lived experiences, seem strangely silent.

The Department for Education reports that it is favourable to the outcomes of the review. A cynical view might be that Government is handing over responsibility to the regulators of businesses and media, rather than go down the path of legislative measures to curb the 'unthinking drift towards ever greater commercialisation and sexualisation.'

Indeed, David Cameron seeks changes via 'social responsibility, not state control' although even members of the Mothers' Union - the Christian organisation of which Reg Bailey is the Chief Executive - have remarked that such legislation would not be seen as disempowering to parental child-rearing endeavours .

The consensual approach, however, has been taken and a summit organised in Downing Street for October 2011 - progress will be identified and legislation considered in 18 months time if voluntary controls are not apparent.

It is the aspirational 'family-friendly' world that is being sought here, as acknowledged by the Review, and yet perennial cries of the long working hours of parents disrupting family units, the crushing effects of disadvantage and poverty on some three million families, the moral panics inflicted by an ever-tightening grip on child safety and a seemingly hostile acquiescence of childhood in general, with constant reports of anti-social behaviour, would not appear to readily support the building of such a world.

Targeting the ubiquitous rise of commercialisation of us all, and sexual objectification in general, may indeed be a more salient response to societal concerns than seeking to pin it all on protecting childhood - 'family-friendly' surely includes a wider audience.

Lynn Richards is a Senior Lecturer in Childhood and Family Studies at the University of Wolverhampton.