Letting Children be Children/Foreword
Foreword by Reg Bailey
“I don’t know why grown-ups find it so difficult, it’s really very simple. There should be another button on the remote control like the red button so that if you see something that isn’t right on television then you can press it to tell them you don’t like it. And if more than a thousand people press it then the programme is automatically cut off”. So said the enthusiastic 10-year-old at a research presentation from a group of children to the Review team. “It’s really very simple.”
When Sarah Teather MP, the Minister of State for Children and Families, approached me to lead an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood I was delighted to be asked, but I was under no illusions that it was likely to be very simple.
Previous reviews of these issues have been led by eminent academics and practitioners. I am neither, but took on this task as someone who is passionately interested in supporting family life, not only through my job as Chief Executive of Mothers’ Union, a charity supporting parents and children in 83 countries of the world, but also as a parent and grandparent.
We live in a society that is changing at what is, for many, a bewildering rate. Increased levels of wealth have created strong commercial pressures on every one of us, whether or not we have participated in that affluence. Society also seems to have become more openly sexualised; the rapidly changing technological environment has its benefits in so many ways but has also made the seamier side of humanity inescapable.
If adults need to be emotionally and otherwise well adjusted to deal with this environment; so much more so do children.
I wanted to understand the nature of these pressures on our children and young people. I wanted to understand, too, why so many parents seem to lack confidence in their ability to help their children navigate this commercial and sexualised world. Most of all I wanted to bring forward some clear and straightforward suggestions to address these issues and ensure we provide the right sort of support for parents and children alike.
So what would be a good outcome from this Review?
Firstly, that parents feel that I have listened to their concerns and that they will be taken seriously. Parents recognise that they should be the ones to set the standards that their children live by, but in some things they need more support. In particular, parents need businesses and others to work with them and not against them.
However, parents also need to accept the challenge to them and recognise that for children to be children, parents need to be parents.
Secondly, whilst many businesses and broadcasters are doing a good job in working with parents and only selling things for and to children that are appropriate for them, there are those who are not. I hope that they would recognise that they need to step up and be as good as the best, and they need to be more proactive in encouraging feedback and complaints. When it comes to inappropriate advertising and marketing, I want all businesses to play fair when selling to children and not take advantage of gaps in the regulation, especially regarding new media. It seems to me that there is enough goodwill for this to happen without legislation.
Thirdly, I hope that our regulators will work consistently to connect with parents, and recognise that parents should have a much larger say in what is appropriate or desirable for their children to see and hear.
In this Review, I make a series of recommendations; they take a largely consensual approach to the issues raised. To me, it is obvious that this is the best course. Nevertheless, I recognise it is also the most difficult.
And consensus comes most easily when a mature and constructive debate takes place to achieve a holistic approach to the issues raised by the Review; it is not enhanced by the prurient approach that has sometimes characterised the wide media coverage of these issues. By contrast, I have appreciated the maturity of the arguments put forward by the contributors to the Review. I believe my faith in those contributors to deliver on the recommendations will not be misplaced.
It may be that there will be those who argue that greater regulation and legislation is needed to deal with the issues raised. In my view, that would further disempower parents from taking the responsibility for their children upon themselves.
Finally, whilst it seems that the recommendations place responsibility for our children and young people on parents, businesses, broadcasters, other media, regulators and government; I believe it does not absolve any of us as responsible adults from creating the right sort of environment that allows our nation’s children to be children. That way we all create and own a better society.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the very real contribution made by previous reviewers: Professor David Buckingham and his team, Professor Tanya Byron, and Dr Linda Papadopoulos. It is upon their foundations that much of this present Review is based; and their constructive comments to me have been invaluable.
Patrick Barwise, James Best, Agnes Nairn, Sue Palmer, and Stewart Purvis have been the best of critical friends, fearless in their questioning, yet supportive and challenging. I thank them for all their efforts in this task. I have also greatly valued the support and encouragement of Rachel Aston, Laura Bedwell, Fleur Dorrell, and Fiona Thomas.
Thanks are due to the excellent team at the Department for Education: Louisa Ellisdon, John Hubbard, Joanna Leavesley, Gillian Machin, Catherine May, Helen Ralphson and Victoria Saunders, under the able leadership of Henry Watson, for their great commitment and energy. I have taken a team approach to conducting the Review, and this report is written from the perspective of us as a team.
Finally, I want to thank all those who contributed to the Review and, in particular, all those parents and children who have been so thoughtful and constructive in providing evidence. The children and young people who carried out research on their own initiative through the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England were especially impressive, and show so clearly that if we as parents can create the right environment in which our children can thrive, the future of all of us will be the better for it.
They make me believe it really is simple!
