The commercialism of childhood was illustrated so dramatically by the rampant looting of high street shops observed in the riots, but evidence that something was going wrong was available well before the disturbing events of the summer. In August 2010 Mothers’ Union launched its Bye Buy Childhood Campaign attempting to tackle what we have seen as a steady upsurge in the pressures of commercialisation and sexualisation driving the behaviours of young people and their families. The campaign had three aims: to encourage parents and the wider family to think about the influence of commercialisation within the home; to engage with the commercial world and take positive action to challenge instances of inappropriate marketing or selling; to hold the UK Government accountable on the pledges made to address the commercialisation and sexualisation of children. Since then, the Government has commissioned an independent Review on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood, chaired by Mothers’ Union’s Chief Executive Reg Bailey. It was published in June and made fourteen recommendations.[i] So why are we worried? Childhood is a marketing opportunity now worth £99 billion in the UK.[ii] With the constant and rapid development of new media marketers can reach children wherever they are to persuade them to consume – whether through celebrity endorsement on TV, internet cookies or peer to peer marketing. This ‘commercialisation of childhood’ has attracted widespread concern, from those who perceive a loss of childhood innocence to those who object to children being groomed for a lifetime of consumer obsession. Three fifths of parents we surveyed believe that advertising can be harmful to them.[iii] Yet this is not just a problem for our children, as adults we are equally seduced and commercialised in many aspects of our lives and therefore, do not always provide a consistent role model to those around us. When we lose our ability to discern wisely what we do, or do not, want or need, it becomes easy to replace ‘being’ with ‘having’. Or as the Graphic Designer, Jonathan Barnbrook says: once we branded our slaves, now we are slaves to our brands.
The commercial world can play a very positive and exciting part in children’s lives when it is educative and fun, when it enables participation and belonging, but higher media consumption is linked with greater materialism and inevitable dissatisfaction, particularly when children can’t have the same things as their friends or lose self-confidence through a perceived negative body image. Parents regularly encounter pester power and can feel overwhelmed in making the right decisions for their children’s wellbeing and happiness. Saying ‘no’ to your children ought to be straightforward yet parents can also experience competitiveness from fellow parents or are undermined if other parents and relatives relax all the rules they have carefully established with their own family. It is a delicate balance.
The media’s preoccupation with physical appearance and sexualized imagery are also troubling young people. Girls in the UK find it the hardest to feel attractive when bombarded with superficial media and marketing ‘ideals of beauty’. The sex sells approach appeals to the most basic instincts and the most hidden desires but can distort our understanding of lasting, respectful relationships and of our self-worth, at an early age.
So is life in the UK really characterised by a preoccupation with the consumption of material goods? Do we find ourselves facing a crisis of meaning both individually and collectively? This isn’t just about how children behave or what they crave, adults are equally seduced and commercialised yet remain mystified by their children’s pestering for the latest products. Peer pressure affects all age-groups therefore, resilience and confidence to tackle it should be a priority in the home and in the school. When a child sees it’s Mum or Dad spending hours on their mobiles, laptops or in buying the latest household gadgets, it isn’t surprising why children grow up believing that buying is central to their wellbeing and identity?
The immediacy of this materialism not only leads to dissatisfaction and competitiveness amongst children who are pressured into being consumers from early on but stifles other development at a critical age. The more time children spend in isolation online or on their gadgets, the less time they spend in learning face to face social skills with their peers and with other generations; they spend less time being physically active and healthy resulting in low self-esteem, body image issues and lack of confidence. Children are hiding behind consumption because too often their parents simply aren’t there to support them when they need them most.
Mothers’ Union is challenging our culture through parental awareness, parliamentary lobbying and calling for tighter regulations in the music, retail, marketing and advertising industries. We believe that our children’s self-image and sexuality should be nurtured from within and not imposed from outside, they are to be cherished not exploited.
So what can you do? First, we can all reflect on our consumer habits, and try to make changes where commercialisation or sexualisation is affecting both our wellbeing and that of those who create the products we buy. Mothers’ Union has produced a simple Bye Buy Test to help children and adults think about the choices they make when shopping.[iv] Second, challenge the manufacturing, marketing and retail industries to take an ethical approach to selling to children; especially in relation to sexualised clothing and products inappropriate for that age, or in promoting products sexually even when they themselves are not sexual in nature. Third, demand that the Coalition Government prohibits the ‘sex sells’ approach being aimed at children under 16 and will prevent children from being exposed to sexualised media particularly through on-street advertising, accessibility to inappropriate content on the internet and internet enabled devices, and in the music industry where currently, music DVDs (unlike films) are not age restricted.[v]
We sell ourselves short when we do not think for ourselves, about what is legitimate, manipulative or exploitative. When we behave as if we had no choice, as if the way in which we live is out of our control. When we see the risks to human flourishing in a deeply 'commercialised' and ‘sexualised’ world, we have a social, political and spiritual responsibility to speak out and restore our self-worth.
Unicef’s latest Report[vi] shows clearly that children thrive when they spend core and structured time with their parents. Materialism is far less important to those children than key relationships. When children actively contribute to family life by doing chores and understanding basic ground rules, they feel more connected and less lonely. They learn to value the importance of belonging, sharing, waiting and saving up for things rather than receiving them on demand.
Yet so many UK parents have replaced ‘being’ with ‘having’ because their time is limited and a long working hours culture prohibits them from regular and quality family time. Time is bought at a premium and translates into the cost and loss of being a family. Mothers’ Union has campaigned for years on flexible working and increasing parental leave to enable families to spend more time together yet there is a long way to go.
Family life is under great threat. We must work together: parents, schools, the media, the government and wider society to ensure that the next generation will not be sold a life that they cannot afford nor a life defined by what they have rather than who they are. It is unethical to sell children the lie that buying equals happiness at the expense of relationships they long for most.”
For further information about our Campaign, the Report and resources go to www.byebuychildhood.org
[i] https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM%208078
[ii] Mayo and Nairn, Consumer Kids: How Big Business is Grooming Our Children for Profit, Constable, 2009.
[iii] Mothers’ Union, Bye Buy Childhood: A Report into the Commercialisation of Childhood, 2010.
[iv] Available from Mothers’ Union, 24 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3RB or www.byebuychildhood.org
[v]80% of parents believe the media make children sexually aware at too young an age, taken from Mothers’ Union, Bye Buy Childhood: A Report into the Commercialisation of Childhood, 2010.
[vi] http://www.unicef.org.uk/UNICEFs-Work/What-we-do/Issues-we-work-on/Child-well-being/
