Submitted by: Management Committee NCW

The National Council of Women in Conference assembled: (i) noting with concern that our children are growing up in a culture which is preoccupied with sexualising the experience of childhood; (ii) aware that the world of entertainment and celebrity encourages girls to believe their sexual attractiveness is paramount; (iii) conscious that commercial forces turn children into consumers and sexualised commodities; (iv) aware too of the obsession of today’s children with clothing and the right look, fuelled by the visual media advertising, peer pressure and the child’s overriding desire to fit in, calls upon the government to ensure that: recognising the importance of childhood, the regulations relating to children are strengthened and improved, halting the excessive commercialisation of children by banning manipulative marketing techniques; and that an open dialogue with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) is maintained.