Sexualising children
The Australia Institute, a left-of-centre think tank, has produced a series of discussion papers on the role of advertising and the media in the commercialisation and sexualisation of children. These have caused controversy by pointing the finger at advertisers and the media in promoting premature sexualisation.
The paper Corporate Paedophilia argues that the sexualisation of Australian children in the interest of corporate profit is increasing and exposes children to a wide range of risks from a very young age.
The report examines advertising and marketing directed at young children and their parents. The institute claims that Australian children were being targeted from a very young age to dress and appear ‘sexy’.
According to the Institute “The essential point is that children are increasingly being portrayed in clothing and posed in ways designed to draw attention to adult sexual features that they do not yet possess. Children are being eroticised in the interest of the corporate bottom line”.
A subsequent paper, Letting Children be Children expresses particular concern about fashion and gossip magazines pitched at girls as young as six who were encouraged to dance in sexually provocative ways, idolise highly sexualised young women like Paris Hilton, and have crushes on adult male celebrities.