Seminars: Children & the Sexualised Media

Adelaide 23 November 2009

This sell-out seminar at Immanuel College, Novar Gardens featured Steve Biddulph, Julie Gale and Professor
Elizabeth Handsley. It was chaired by Matthew Abraham from ABC local radio.

2009 Melbourne seminars

The Australian Council on Children and the Media, in alliance with Kids Free 2B Kids presented two very successful
seminars on the sexualisation of children in and by the media, in Melbourne in early August 2009.

Seminar speakers, fom left: Michael Carr-Gregg, Julie Gale, Steve Biddulph, Maggie Hamilton

Two hundred people attended the public seminar, Bratz, Britney and Bralettes: The sexualisation of childhood
on August 3 at Melbourne Girls Grammar School. They heard from three  leading advocates on the issue, Julie Gale,
Founding Director of Kids Free 2B Kids, Steve Biddulph, well known author and family psychologist and Maggie
Hamilton author of What’s Happening to Our Girls? Too Much, Too Soon, How Our Kids are Overstimulated,
Oversold and Oversexed.

The evening was chaired by well known psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. A survey of those in attendance
revealed that at least 95% strongly agreed that there can be significant harms for children from this sexualised
environment and 98% strongly agreed that more needs to be done.

Children and Sexualised Media: Risks, reviews and regulation

On August 4, a full day seminar, Children and Sexualised Media: Risks, reviews and regulation, held at the
Australian Education Union building, Abbotsford was attended by over 60 people including representatives of the
media, health and education professionals, advertisers, regulators, and community organizations. This seminar
was chaired by Dr Glenn Cupit from the School of Education, University of South Australia.

In his introductory remarks, Alastair Nicholson AO, former Chief Justice of the Family Court, suggested four
steps that could be taken:

(1) incorporate the relevant principles and provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic
law
(2) set up an office of Children’s Commissioner at a federal level
(3) set up a tribunal with teeth to replace the Australian Communications and Media Authority
(4) give the Advertising Standards Board and Australian Classification Board appropriate coercive powers and
ensure they are properly staffed to act on their own volition rather than waiting for complaints.

Several speakers outlined issues of harm for children Julie Gale, founding director of Kids Free 2B Kids, dressed
for the occasion in “clothes borrowed from my 14-year-old-daughter” – ultra high heels, tight and sequined clothing
and Playboy bunny ears. She spoke about the problems she encounters, and her work in fighting for the removal of
offending billboards and other graphic material.

	Julie Gale, dressed for the occasion

Rita Princi, a consulting psychologist, focused on the detrimental developmental effects of sexualised
media on even very young children. Bernadette McMenamin AO, CEO of Childwise highlighted the increasing
problem of pornography and its involvement of, and availability to, children both in Australia and globally.

Family psychologist and author Steve Biddulph, talking about the problem as ‘a war on our girls’, expressed his
belief that the sudden rise in the sexualisation of young girls, primarily as a vehicle to sell products worth billions
of dollars a year, is the biggest issue facing modern childhood

The afternoon presentations focused on what has been done and what more needs to be done.

Dr Emma Rush, formerly of The Australia Institute, and co-author of the 2006 reports Corporate Paedophilia,
and Let children be children, explained the reasons for that research and the outcomes of the reports. One of the
Australia Institute’s recommendations was for a specialist children’s interest unit within a media regulator with a brief
to monitor children’s interests across all media.

Industry representatives reviewed what is and has been done to combat the problem of sexualized media and to regulate advertising. Scott McLellan, CEO of the Australian Association of National Advertisers explained the AANA codes and
actions and his belief in the efficacy of voluntary codes.  Fiona Jolly, CEO of the Advertising Standards Board talked
about what the Board has done, and is doing, in this area.

Former Senator, Lyn Allison a key member of 2008 Senate Committee on Environment, Communication and the Arts
Inquiry into the Sexualisation of Children spoke about the outcomes of, and expectations from, this inquiry.
 
In reviewing possibilities for future action, Dr Cordelia Fine from the Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics,
University of Melbourne, discussed her research on what cognitive science tells us about the way in which marketing
influences us, and the implications of this for marketing to children. Her research review had found that older children
can be just as influenced by advertising as younger ones.  Media literacy as a solution is not promising.

Elizabeth Handsley, Professor of Law at Flinders University and Vice-President of the Australian Council on Children
and the Media, found the Senate Inquiry into the Sexualisation of Children Report to be ineffective by proposing to
leave the advertising and media industries to self-regulate on this issue.  She was critical of the AANA revision to its
Code of advertising and marketing to children in regard to the sexualisation of children, arguing that the added clauses
would not moderate the real problems. She called for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to
be given greater powers, and supported Alastair Nicholson’s earlier suggestions.

Professor Ann Sanson (Network Coordinator, ARACY) provided figures from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children
to show that we are not doing well on wellbeing. She pointed to what media portrayals of children have to say about the
way our society values children and youth.

The concluding panel, featuring all the speakers.

The day concluded with a panel session, allowing time for audience comments and questions.  Suggestions that it was
time we abandoned the test of “community standards” as the arbiter in regulatory issues, were met with applause. Tests
related to harm were seen as a better measure.   There was much impatience about the Government’s lack of response
on the issues, and support for the Senate Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts to review progress
on the community’s concerns.

For more details of speakers - click here

To read an attendee's impression of the seminars, published in the NSW Parents Council Newsletter, go to http://www.parentscouncil.nsw.edu.au/News_and_Events/News/The_Queen_of_Tarts_is_stealing_their_hearts_.html