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Clothing, Products and Services for Children

"Marketers clearly do not create gender role differences: the question is whether they respond to these differences in ways that, on balance, reinforce them."

DCSF/DCMS, 2009

Child development and sexual maturity

10.

The parents who contributed to the Review clearly wanted their own children to have the space and time to grow and develop mentally, physically and emotionally as individuals, learning how to navigate the world at their own pace and in their own unique way. We found a commonly—held view among respondents that sexualisation accelerates that process in a way that parents do not like, and that some parents worry could be harmful.

"It's gonna make her grow up too fast, walking around thinking she's a little teenager. She ain't, she's a little girl and I want her to dress like a little girl."

"There's a concern about them knowing too much at their age. You want to protect their innocence."

"She wants to wear make—up and short skirts because she wants to look like [a celebrity] but it's too much. It's not innocent — well it is, but it might look provoking to the wrong people."

Parents, Review qualitative research

"I think it [sexualisation] has a massive influence on how they grow up... It's quite disturbing." Parent, Call for Evidence response

11.

These are certainly not new concerns on the part of parents and it is important to view this aspect of the debate in a wider social and historical context. The report of the independent assessment led by Professor Buckingham offers a comprehensive analysis of this wider context, and particularly highlights the role that nostalgia plays in parental and societal views of childhood:

"There is a very dominant strain of nostalgia here — a looking back to a 'golden age' when childhood and family life were apparently harmonious, stable and well adjusted. But it is often far from clear when that time was, or the social groups to whom this description applies; and the basis on which historical comparisons are being made is frequently unclear. Historical studies of childhood certainly give good grounds for questioning whether such a 'golden age' has ever existed."

DCSF/DCMS, 2009

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