Too much, too young?

Society risks losing touch with reality in the debate about whether children are being exposed to adult, sexual content too young, because other agendas are creeping in "under the radar", a new analysis warns. The comments appear in a new University of Cambridge study, which examines the current dispute about whether media such as music videos, girls' magazines and corporate advertising are having a dangerous effect on children by exposing them to adult sexual themes. Earlier this year, a Home Office report called for the tougher regulation of sexual imagery in advertisements and a ban on selling "lads' mags" to under-16s, because of concerns that they were encouraging the "harmful" sexualisation of young people. The new Prime Minister, David Cameron, has similarly called for a website to be set up which would enable parents to complain about the "offensive" marketing tactics of companies accused of contributing to the same process. Writing in the Media International Australia journal, however, University of Cambridge sociologist Robbie Duschinsky warns that the debate is being hijacked by deeper concerns about social status and respectability. His study examines some of the most recent contributions to the dispute, both from those who argue that children are being endangered by "corporate paedophilia" and those who claim that the issue has been overblown. In both cases, it finds evidence that their perspectives are being clouded by other agendas.