Children today are being exposed to more images than any previous generation, due to advances in technology that have made mobile internet, interactive television and sophisticated video games commonplace in many homes. A recent Government-commissioned report caused a stir by claiming that this increased exposure to images that often conform to superficial gender stereotypes is teaching young girls that being attractive is all that matters, while young boys are learning it is 'manly' to be disrespectful to women.
The Sexualisation of Young People Review was published by the Home Office and led by Dr Linda Papadopoulos, a psychologist who has appeared on television and worked in the area of body image.
In an interview with Nursery World, Dr Papadopoulos explains, 'I was asked by Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary, if I would write the report. I have worked in the area of body image and I am also a mother of an eight-year-old girl so these are issues that I feel are very important.'
The study, which is part literature review and partly compiled following interviews with a wide range of groups, including children, parents, teachers, academics, policy-makers and lobbyists, argues that young children are being influenced by a 'drip drip' effect of exposure to sexualised messages, themes and images over time and from a range of different places. Children are being sold the idea that they must look 'sexy', which can lead to an obsession with their personal appearance and can have a serious impact on their mental health.
Dr Papadopoulos explains, 'There is a tendency to celebrate girls for being pretty above anything else.
We are encouraged to celebrate celebrities such as the glamour model Jordan - who is about to launch a make-up range for young children - as a working-class heroine who has made money from commodifying her body, which suggests to young people that that is how to be successful. We shouldn't just be praising girls for their looks or praising boys for being strong.'
MEDIA MESSAGES
The review cites a large body of research showing that young children do not have the cognitive skills to cope with persuasive media messages, and quotes one academic who likened exposing children to advertising to 'sending them to the beach without sunscreen'. Sexualisation is defined in the review as the imposition of adult sexuality onto children and young people before they are capable of dealing with it, and argues that it is contributing to a market for child-abuse images.
'Young people themselves are now producing and swapping what is in effect "child pornography" - a fact borne out by the growing numbers of adolescents who are being convicted for possession of this material,' it argues.
The study points to technological developments, the influence of big business and popular culture and the willingness of both men and women to buy into gender stereotyping as all contributing to the trend for the 'adultification' of children.
'The problem is everywhere,' says Dr Papadopoulos, 'One day my eight-year-old daughter came home from school and said her friend was worried about being fat, because she had an older sister who had talked to her who was using that kind of language. The feeling that being fat is negative is then perpetuated through the media and children will internalise this.'
AIRBRUSHING
The use of airbrushing is criticised in the study for encouraging both children and adults to aspire to an ideal that does not exist in reality, and which has been found to have a detrimental effect on teenagers. It says that a group of experts from the UK, US, Australia and Ireland reached the following conclusions about the impact of airbrushing, which they detailed in a letter to the Advertising Standards Authority:
'Idealised media images have a negative effect on a significant majority of adolescent girls and women, and this starts from an early age. Poor body image is linked to eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, extreme exercising, unhealthy muscle-enhancing activity, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.'
The review finds that magazines are using images of children dressed and posed in ways designed to draw attention to sexual features that they do not have, and giving advice on clothing, diet, and exercise to boost their readers' physical attractiveness. It also looks at how lads' mags encourage boys to objectify the female body through the use of sexualised images.
'There has been a proliferation of the media and the images have become more one-dimensional,' says Dr Papadopoulos.
Other disturbing trends highlighted in the review include the increase in violence against women and girls in films and on television, and a lack of non-sexualised roles for female characters. Music videos also gave cause for concern, with between 44 and 81 per cent of music videos contain sexual imagery, with women often portrayed as decorative objects in provocative clothing while men were often shown as hyper-masculinised and sexually dominant.
The report looks at how advances in technology and the increase in children's exposure to the internet have meant that young people are being exposed to pornography at a younger age. It cites a recent YouGov study, which found that 27 per cent of boys are accessing pornography every week, with five per cent viewing it every day. Mobile internet has meant that it is almost impossible to guarantee that certain websites are being seen by the age group for which they are intended.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Major high-street retailers also come under fire in the report for promoting clothing, games and products for children that have then been withdrawn following complaints that they are inappropriate.
Children's clothing, including pole-dancing kits for children that were sold by Tesco and high-heeled shoes for four-year-olds, is singled out for criticism. The report notes that while there is nothing wrong with role playing with clothes and enjoying fashion, many of the choices available to young girls encourage them to engage and experiment with themes that they may not be mature enough to engage with.
Dr Papadopoulos says, 'Children love dressing up and no-one is saying that girls should not dress up as princesses. The problem is when girls are always the princess and never the academic or the doctor, when they are not given the opportunity to be anything else.'
The report says that marketing tactics used by manufacturers are encouraging young girls to present themselves in a sexual way by producing products that children will strongly identify with, such as Bratz dolls, which are aimed at children aged between four and eight but are mostly heavily made up and sometimes dressed in miniskirts and fishnet stockings. It also explores how the Playboy logo is being used on children's stationery as another example of how the lines between sexual immaturity and maturity can be blurred.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The review makes 36 recommendations of how to tackle the problems of the sexualisation of children, which range from new regulations for retailers to developing a new programme of study for primary schools, which would look at the influence of body image and personal identity.
However, for the youngest children, Dr Papadopoulos argues that parents must become more aware of the messages that they may be giving to them.
She explains, 'Parents usually have the best of intentions but it would help if they were more aware of the problems around the sexualisation of children and why it might be a problem to buy high heels or burlesque outfits for young girls. I also think people should be more aware of how they praise children. When people tell my daughter that she is pretty I am always quick to jump in and say something like, "yes and she's really good at maths", because I don't want her to be focused on her appearance. I am trying to instil in her the idea that you are what you do and not what you look like.'
Other recommendations include making digital literacy a compulsory part of the national curriculum for children from the age of five and the development of child-friendly computers and mobile phones where adult content is filtered out by default. The review says that the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme should be adapted to include a module on gender equality, sexualisation and sexist bullying.
'We need to find ways to guide children and young people around developing tools as informed media-savvy consumers,' the report argues. 'They need to be able to understand that a magazine is selling a fantasy, and to distinguish that fantasy from reality. They need to know that images are routinely being digitally altered - in some cases, almost beyond recognition - and they need to be equipped with the tools to moderate and mitigate the effects of the message and images that they come into contact with.'
Dr Papadopoulos adds, 'There is a need to provide young people with tools that will enable them to deal with sexual content safely and successfully. For example, when watching television with children, talk about the adverts in the breaks and discuss the messages and what marketing is. I think children are often more advanced than we give them credit for and they are capable of understanding these things.'
- Read the report at www.homeoffice.gov.uk
