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Latest News Latest News WFA welcomes end of legal action against Australia Institute

WFA welcomes end of legal action against Australia Institute

Thursday 8 May 2008   Independent women’s think tank Women’s Forum Australia today welcomed the decision of David Jones to end legal proceedings against the Australia Institute related to its 2006 discussion paper Corporate Paedophilia: sexualisation of children in Australia.   The report, written by Emma Rush and Andrea La Nauze, was responsible for kick starting the debate over the sexualisation of children in the media and popular culture in Australia.   Anyone concerned about the sexualisation of children owes the Australia Institute a debt of gratitude for getting the issue the attention it deserved.   Because of Corporate Paedophilia and the follow up report Letting Children Be Children: stopping the sexualisation of children in Australia, there is much greater understanding of the direct and indirect sexualisation of children and more pressure on advertisers to do the right thing.   The Institute pointed out:  “The pressure on children to adopt sexualized appearance and behaviour at an early age is greatly increased by the combination of the direct sexualisation of children with the increasingly sexualized representations of teenagers and adults in advertising and popular culture.”   It also highlighted the dangers of portraying children as “sexual agents who accept or even desire sexual interaction” which can suggest “that children are capable of meaningfully consenting to such interaction in the way that adults do.”   The authors provided extensive examples of the many ways children are sexualized including advertising, girls’ magazines, TV programs and music video clips.   Women’s Forum Australia drew on the Institute’s research for its own magazine-style research paper Faking it: the female image in young women’s magazines published last year. Our research found that even very young girls are the target of sexualised marketing and the commercialisation of their lives, promoting the view that they are not children, but sexy little adults.   Sexualisation contributes to greater body dissatisfaction among girls and young women. It is linked to eating disorders, anxiety, depression, self-harm and low self-esteem.   The Institute stated that children could only develop freely if government assists parents by limiting sexualising material at its source. Current regulation has failed. The current Senate committee inquiry into the sexualisation of children must make strong recommendations to protect children.