Sexualisation of Young People Review

Sexualisation of Young People Review
Furthermore, the sheer proliferation
of such images leads to gradual
desensitisation; research carried out
among teenage girls found that their
objections to sexualised images tended to
decrease over time. 156157
Taking steps to protect
children
The ASA’s remit requires it to have
‘special concern for the protection of
children’ and the Agency has a number
of enforceable codes prohibiting, for
example, advertisers from targeting
children with misleading adverts,
adverts that put viewers under
pressure to purchase, and any adverts
that could cause harm or distress.
Other countries have adopted various
approaches to restricting advertising
for children. In Greece, toy adverts
are banned on TV between 7am and
10pm; Sweden bans all TV advertising
aimed at children under 12; while
Norway, Finland, and Denmark do
not allow sponsorship of children’s
programmes. The Broadcasting Code
of Canada severely restricts children’s
advertising and bans any adverts that
imply a product will make a child
happier or more popular. In 2004, the
APA’s Task Force on Advertising and
Children formally backed a proposal
to restrict advertising to children aged
eight or under in the US. The task
force highlights that as adults respond
to commercials by automatically
applying cognitive filters, which tell
them that the commercial intends to
persuade them, they expect biased
information and interpret it accordingly.
Children on the other hand lack these
cognitive filters. 157
Marketing also encourages young girls
to present themselves in a sexual way.
One tactic is to present characters that
children strongly identify with in a highly
sexualised way. 158 Bratz dolls, for example,
are targeted at four-to-eight-year-olds,
yet most dolls in the range are heavily
made-up, some of which are dressed in
miniskirts and fishnet stockings. Another
tactic is to market objects to young girls
that are entirely appropriate on one
level but which nevertheless send out
disturbing messages: putting the Playboy
bunny logo on a child’s pencil case is a
prime example of how the line between
sexual immaturity and maturity can be
blurred. Such blurring – which also occurs
when adult women are presented in an
infantilised way (for example, the recent
Playboy cover of a model in pig-tails,
holding a teddy bear) – effectively suggests
that it is acceptable to relate to children
in a sexual way. 159 In his examination
of sexual portrayals of girls in fashion
advertising, Merskin (2004) puts it like this:
“…the message from advertisers and
the mass media to girls (as eventual
women) is they should always be sexually
available, always have sex on their minds,
be willing to be dominated and eventually
sexually aggressed against...” 160
Although the bulk of the research
is currently focused on print and TV
advertising, it is arguably the case that
internet advertising – which can be
both interactive and prolonged – has an
even more powerful effect on children
and young people. That interactivity can
encourage children to form strong bonds
with brands.
The basic economic concepts are also
different. Whereas primary school
children can understand the basic
38
156
Survey carried out in New Zealand, Clark
(2008)
157
APA Taskforce on Advertising and Children
(2004)
158
Evidence provided to the review by the British
Board of Film Classification (2009)
159
Ringrose (2010)
160
Merskin (2004)