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Friday, June 3, 2011

Raunchy videos set to be banned before 9pm in the UK

Raunchy music videos by the likes of Rihanna and Christina Aguilera will be banned before 9pm under plans to be unveiled next week.

Adverts that use sex to sell will also be banned from sites near schools.

Pop videos in which pop stars flaunt their sexuality are also to be given cinema-style age certificates.

Raunchy: Christina Aguilera shocked audiences with her sexually-charged routines when she appeared on X-Factor 

The proposals are contained in a hard-hitting report by Reg Bailey, the first male chief executive of the Mothers’ Union. 

Ministers are expected to adopt the radical proposals to put a stop to the creeping sexualisation of children.
The plans mean that television channels that show highly sexualised images of singers like Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera will have to carry a 15 or 18 certificate if they involve nudity or sexual role play.

The rules will not apply to live performances on TV – meaning the increasingly racy dance routines on programmes such as The X-Factor will escape censure.

At the moment advertising rules mean alcohol and fast food adverts are banned from billboards near schools. A source involved in drawing up the plans said that would be extended to cover adverts featuring sexual imagery – a move that could ban raunchy images like those in some ice cream adverts.

‘It’s the end of Haagen Daaz outside the school gates,’ said one source consulted as part of the review.

Mr Bailey’s report will also feature an outspoken condemnation of high-street retailers that peddle padded bras and high-heeled shoes at girls as young as 10.

Retailers will be expected to sign a voluntary code not to sell products that treat children as sex objects and encourage them to grow up too fast. That is a response to the public outcry about controversial products for children, including High School Musical-themed underwear with the slogan ‘Dive In’, and Playboy stationery.

The rules will not apply to live performances on TV - meaning the increasingly racy dance routines like Rihanna's on programmes such as The X-Factor will escape censure
In the past ministers have hinted that they might go further and legislate if high street shops refuse to comply. 

Parents are also expected to get the right to launch a formal complaint about an advert specifically on the grounds that it is inappropriate for children.

David Cameron has repeatedly voiced concerns that children have become increasingly exposed to sexual imagery and ‘pester power’ has put parents on the back foot.

He said last year: ‘You can’t cut children off from the commercial world but we should be able to help parents more in terms of trying to make sure that our children get a childhood and that they are not subject to unnecessary and inappropriate commercialisation and sexualisation too young. 

‘Some businesses are dumping a waste that is toxic on our children. Products and marketing that can warp their minds and their bodies and harm their future. That can take away their innocence, which I know most parents would agree is so precious and worth defending. Children are being pushed into grown-up territory well before their time.’

The report next week comes after a poll earlier this year, commissioned by the Department for Education, found nearly nine in ten parents believe children feel under pressure to act older than they are. The survey revealed that almost half believe the 9pm watershed – in place to protect youngsters – no longer has any force.

In the poll, 41 per cent of parents agreed they had seen TV shows or advertisements before the watershed that they considered wrong for their children to view. And 40 per cent said they had seen window displays or advertising boards that children should not be exposed to.
At the time, Mr Bailey said: ‘Parents are telling us in no uncertain terms that they are worried about the pressures on children to grow up too quickly.

‘It is clear their concerns have not been created out of a moral panic but from everyday experience. 

‘They are struggling against the slow creep of an increasingly  commercial and sexualised culture and behaviour, which they say  prevents them from parenting the way they want.’

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