Mother's Day - Time to Get tough on toxiic sexy public ads

05-May-2011

Speech to the Australian Families Association

Thursday 5 May 2011

By Sophie Mirabella MP

It’s a pleasure to be with you all tonight and to talk about a subject very near to my heart as a mother of two toddlers and a step-mother of two teenage girls.

First, I’d like to put the issue in context.  Let’s do a little visualisation exercise…

Let’s imagine for a minute the headlines that would confront us if we discovered that Australian children were being exposed to a harmful toxin on a regular basis. 

It’s a toxin that can impact on everything from the child’s physical health to their future relationships and ability to lead a happy and productive life. 

It can even impact on the wellbeing of these children’s children.

Now let’s imagine the outcry if we knew that children as young as 3 or 4 were being exposed to the toxin.

Then let’s consider the revulsion we’d feel if we found out that the reason for the exposure to the toxin was so that companies, unfettered by restrictions, could make a quick buck.

Imagine the shame when we found out that nothing had been done about the toxin simply because it didn’t really affect adults.

We’d be mortified to find that the reason the Government did nothing was because regulating the toxin may have had an impact on what some adults considered their “rights”.

Put like this, we would never allow such a nightmare scenario to unfold.

We would never knowingly allow our children to be exposed to a harmful toxin.

The fact is, they are.  Every day.

We just rarely think about it in those terms. 

Whether we like to admit it or not, exposure to adult sexuality can be a toxin for young children. 

It’s an uncomfortable admission.

In a past life of mine, as a barrister, a product of my generation and a passionate advocate of free speech I may have been one of the first to roll my eyes and think “wowser” when I heard such a statement.

Since the late 60s there has been a movement towards sexual expression and permissiveness in our society.

But as a mother, I find myself now asking – at what cost?  Particularly, at what cost to our children?

This is not just my personal opinion as a so called wowser politician.

There is an increasing weight of research which shows that exposure to sexualised imagery can be linked to childhood anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and self harm.  The threat of premature sexualisation includes exposure to STD’s as children become sexually active at an even younger age.

The American Psychological Association has stated that “ample evidence indicates that sexualisation has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, sexuality and beliefs.”

And the Australian Psychological Society has even released guidelines for parents to help them deal with the bombardment of highly sexualised images their children experience.

You can look them up on their website – it confirms the harmful nature of ongoing exposure to images that children just don’t have the ability to properly understand.

For too long, “Parental Guidance recommended” has been a sort of catch-all disclaimer.

It’s true that parents have a vital role to play in helping minimise their child’s exposure to the “toxin” of adult sexuality.  But no amount of parental control or restriction can stop children absorbing the overt sexuality and objectification that has seeped into today’s raunch culture.

It is no longer as easy as simply turning off the TV.

The billboard that has a scantily clad woman in a sexually suggestive pose advertising the very adult “Sexpo” is difficult to explain to a nine year old who doesn’t have the cognitive ability to actually make sense of the messages she gets from both the image and the words. 

Nor is it avoidable if it’s on the school route.

Ditto for the magazine at the newsagent or supermarket displayed at the eye-level of a 4 year old. 

Same goes for the highly suggestive program promotion that blares between goals when you’re watching a footy game on the weekend with the kids. 

Or the near-pornographic video clip that plays at the local bowling alley or shopping centre.

Even the most diligent parent cannot completely avoid the “sex sells” imagery that children interpret in a much different way than we adults do.

And yes, occasionally such images can be a catalyst for discussion and education. 

But do 7 year olds really possess the ability to recognise that the sexually explicit pose of the woman wearing next to nothing is not a representation of reality, but an unfair and oppressive female stereotype designed to sell a product by appealing to base instincts and employing sly, under-graduate-style, adult “humour”?

And should they really have to deal with such concepts at age 7? 

Isn’t it our duty, as adults, to protect them, allow them to deal with issues at an appropriate age when they are developmentally and emotionally able to cope with them?

Children are not small adults.  They are not our equal friends, they are our responsibility.

If children get overtly sexual message at every turn, they make sense of the world around them by linking their personal success and well being with “how hot” they look and whether they “put out” and by viewing sex through a shallow, voyeuristic prism.

We are only beginning to realise what impact this toxic exposure may have on our society in the future. 

The sad cadet sex filming incident at ADFA is a reflection of how even the cream of our young crop can have distorted views on sexuality and appropriate behaviour – views most likely evolving from a lifetime of exposure to “adult” concepts.

It seems to me that for far too long the debate about sexuality in the media has centred on adults.  It has been a battle between the rights of adults to see what they choose versus those adults personally offended by sexually explicit material.

Unfortunately, the debate has been characterized as “wowsers on the right” and “reasonable free-speech loving libertarians on the left”.  And of course the politically correct thing to do has been to err on the side of civil liberties.

But since when do adult rights trump children’s rights? 

And what about the rights of that vast majority of adults who are also parents and want to raise their children with a healthy self-image and approach to adult relationships?

And haven’t adults got a moral responsibility, above all else, to protect children from those things that could harm them?

Premature sexualisation falls into that category.  Fair and square.

I’m not for a minute arguing that we must curtail the sexual rights of adults, but I am arguing that we have a responsibility to make sure that such rights are not played out in the public arena to the detriment of our children.
The last thing I would advocate is that sex once again becomes a taboo subject, or we send a message that sexuality is something to be ashamed of. 

But we have to be aware that the premature sexualisation of children is a very serious health and welfare issue.

In my view, it is also intrinsically linked with the heinous crime of paedophilia.  The more “sexualised” young children become in the media, the more that some sick people in society will see it as a justification for their repulsive behaviour.

Strangely, our justice system also treats the sexual assault of children as some sort of a lesser crime than the sexual assault of adults.

A 33 year old man was recently sentenced to just 7 years in jail for 16 sexual offences on 6 young girls, including rape.  He was a registered sex offender who’d dropped off the radar and whose de facto had no idea of his past.

If he was a serial rapist who’d raped 6 women, he’d surely have got more jail time than 7 years?  I am on the record talking about the case of Dennis Ferguson. He was convicted of numerous sex offences against children. The judge in his case stated that there was zero chance of rehabilitation; however, he was sentenced to only 14 years in jail.

Not surprisingly when released there was an outcry from people who did not want him as a neighbour. And many people said that he had done his time and that was enough. What is enough when it comes to keeping our children safe? Why on earth do we not afford our children at least the same level of protection from sexual assault as we do our women?

The good news is that premature sexualisation is becoming a real issue – part of the BBQ stopper conversations that elevate a private concern to a public debate.

The padded bra designed for a 5 year old, the baby romper suit with the lewd sexual message are all a part of the campaign to sell the desirability of sexiness to children and are unacceptable.

The most prevalent messages, however, are the adult images and messages that children are subject to daily – mostly through advertising, but also in movies, TV and now the internet.

Just last week in Sydney the “Right 2 Childhood” Conference examined the convergence of sex, violence, the media, commerce and popular culture, its impact on children and what we can do about it. 

Unfortunately, the conference took place on the day of the Royal wedding and did not get the media coverage it deserved…there were a few column inches in the paper which quoted the CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation, Dr Joe Tucci.

Dr Tucci reported that children as young as 6 are displaying inappropriate sexual behaviour – and that violent and sexually explicit images in advertising and popular culture were to blame.

Most disturbing, over the past decade there has been a 20-fold increase in the number of children being referred to the Australian Childhood Foundation with these serious problems.

We’re talking about sexual assaults on other children by children, and sexualised play.  This is serious.

The organizers of the Conference, researchers and activists on this issue like Julie Gale of “Kids free 2 be Kids” and Melinda Tankard-Reist of “Collective Shout” are to be congratulated for their determination to raise public awareness and question the impact popular culture is having on children.

The Kids Free 2 B Kids website is a fantastic resource and I would urge all of you here today who are concerned about this issue to look it up, and to support the work of Julie Gale and other activists.

So exactly what can be done? 

How do we, as a society, weigh the rights of adults to view material with the rights of children to be protected from clearly adult content?

There is currently a House of Representatives Inquiry into the Regulation of Billboard and Outdoor Advertising. 

Billboard advertising is perhaps the most in-your-face and unavoidable form of public display – and we’ve seen some particularly disgusting examples in Melbourne recently.

The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) has failed to protect our children from the content of these billboards.  With its membership disproportionately containing more artists, actresses, journalists, academics, and ex-politicians (Democrat and Labor) than in the wider community, it’s perhaps not surprising that the Bureau’s decisions have failed to align with community standards and expectations.

Industry self-regulation has proved to be a poor form of policing when it comes to the almighty advertising dollar. Did anyone really expect it would be otherwise?

In any case, often the ASB decision comes weeks after a complaint has been made – the ad has most likely run its course and the damage is done.

And really the ASB completely misses the point if it is looking at each offensive advertisement in isolation.  The damage done to children is like a thousand tiny cuts, exposure to thousands of toxic images and adult ideas.  If you’re only going to look at each incident in isolation, and in any case you’re only shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, then why really bother?

Why don’t we have a statutory body with real powers – including issuing serious fines to offenders? 

Let’s codify community standards, but this time let’s all place weight on the medical opinion about the effects on children, and let’s err on the side of caution.  We would if it was a chemical toxin, wouldn’t we?

It seems bizarre that we’ve got a watchdog like the ACCC to protect small businesses from unfair competition, but nothing substantial to protect our children from harmful images and messages.

As activist Melinda Tankard-Reist points out in her submission to the Inquiry, it’s an incongruous inconsistency that many of the images on billboards would be considered offensive and sexual harassment were they on display in the workplace, yet they are the wallpaper of our public spaces.

And how mortified would any parent be if a stranger approached their children in the park and started showing them pictures of half-naked men and women in suggestive poses?

The fact is our children are subject to these images on a daily basis in a range of public situations and we’ve become so used to it that we rarely bat an eyelid.

Perhaps the very first step in tightening regulation of advertising is to get people passionate about the issue without fear of being labelled a “wowser”. 

As a society we need to stop and take a close look at the growing medical opinion about the harmful effect that premature sexualisation has on our children.

Let’s recognise it as the toxin it is.  Fine for most adults, but poison for our children.

Let’s stop letting each questionable ad slip by and acknowledge that no one-off exposure is going to do irreparable damage to anyone’s wellbeing, but that being exposed to a steady stream of images is undoubtedly harmful to the healthy development of our children.

Let’s view this Mothers’ Day as a call-to-arms to protect the innocence of childhood and to draw a line in the sand about the sorts of images we should allow our children to view, particularly those on public display which are difficult to avoid.

As a mother, I know that nothing is more important to me than the health and well being of my daughters.  And of course, it’s not just the girls who are affected – it is the young boys who will one day be their husbands and the fathers of the next generation.

So this Sunday, instead of another pair of fluffy slippers, let’s all of us honour our mothers by calling for an end to the shallow, vacuous objectification of women that is so prevalent in the media, and which leads to the premature sexualisation of our children.

It might very well be the most important thing we can do for future generations.

End.