Reg Bailey

“ RECOMMENDATION
5.
Making it easier for parents to block adult and age-restricted material from the internet. To provide a consistent level of protection across all media, as a matter of urgency, the internet industry should ensure that customers must make an active choice over what sort of content they want to allow their children to access. To facilitate this, the internet industry must act decisively to develop and introduce effective parental controls, with Government regulation if voluntary action is not forthcoming within a reasonable timescale. ”

“ What is more, the broadcasters we spoke to accept that, to a certain extent, the watershed really only serves to protect younger children, typically those of primary school age, and that once children are old enough to be able to choose the programmes they watch, then they are also mature enough to enjoy stronger content in the later part of the pre—watershed period and just after it: "There are variations in how the watershed is used to regulate children's television viewing. ”

“ Clearly television cannot be indifferent to popular culture or turn its back on pop music, comedy or other popular entertainments. Nor are we suggesting that pre—watershed dramas should not deal with difficult issues. Yet it appears to be the case that many parents are concerned about the content of certain programmes shown before the watershed and that pre—watershed programming can be unexpectedly difficult for parents. ”

“ Parental controls that might restrict children's access to adult content already exist on many internet—enabled devices. But whilst many provide a reasonable level of protection, they cannot be completely effective and in many instances can be bypassed relatively easily. However, industry experts we spoke to during this Review told us they believe parental controls are an effective way to prevent accidental access to harmful content and consider that the better products on the market can withstand reasonable attempts at disabling them. ”

“ Serious concerns have been raised with us about what is seen as the ease of access to age-restricted and adult material on the internet and through video—on—demand services, some of which allow unchallenged free access to pornography. ”

“ Broadcasters argue that the watershed is still an effective control and well understood by parents:
"We believe television generally is trusted by parents. Conventions such as the watershed make clear what sort of programming is available at what time." "The television watershed is an industry standard and is well known and understood by the audience... In all but exceptional circumstances, programmes before 9pm are suitable for general audiences including children."
Broadcasters, Call for Evidence response
25. ”

“ Although the VRA only applies to video works sold in hard copy, our view is that rating music videos in hard copy will have a beneficial knock—on effect to all methods of distributing music videos. We believe that once music videos are age rated in hard copy, media providers will be able to use that rating, in addition to the existing Broadcasting Code, to decide how and when to broadcast music videos or carry them on a website. ”

“ Broadcasters also shared the view that, since they do not want viewers to change channel or switch off their television if they see something they do not like, there is no incentive to produce offensive material. ”

“ We have heard a particular concern that the television programmes that people have traditionally watched as family gradually and this makes it difficult to viewing, such as talent shows and soaps, are starting to push the boundaries of acceptability by including increasingly sexualised content. ”

“ Where regulation does exist, regulators need to connect better with parents and encourage businesses to comply with the 'spirit of the regulation'. Where regulation does not exist, businesses need to behave more responsibly. WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE
That sexualised images used in public places and on television, the internet, music videos, magazines, newspapers and other places are more in line with what parents find acceptable, and that the public space becomes more family friendly.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. ”

“ We believe that parents do not accept, for example, that if a variety show features a pop musician with a reputation for delivering highly sexualised performances that the broadcaster has licence to sail as close to the edge of compliance with the Broadcasting Code as possible. ”

“ We fully respect the editorial independence of broadcasters. We also know and welcome the fact that they undertake research with their audiences, including parents, some more formally than others, but would like to see this becoming a regular and routine activity across the whole industry. ”

“ Just 37 per cent of parents of children who use the internet at home have any controls set or any software loaded to stop their child viewing certain types of website; 30 per cent say they use safe search settings. The majority of parents of children aged 5-15 (78 per cent) have rules in place about their child's internet use. Half of all parents of an 8-11 year old child (52 per cent) regularly check what their child is doing, but only 36 per cent of parents of a 5-7 year old and 34 per cent of parents of 12-15s. ”

“ As noted at the beginning of this chapter, sexualised culture is now mainstream in children's lives, and there is evidence that sexualised imagery and content have become more explicit in its nature, with a perception that its volume is expanding due to the increasing number of media channels available to adults and children. ”

“ These figures show that a significant minority of parents feel negative effects from some images displayed, including advertising, in the public space. Unlike advertisements on television or radio, there is no option to 'switch off' on—street advertisements — there is no choice but to be exposed to them on, for example, billboards, bus shelters and public transport. ”

“ Ensuring that magazines and newspapers with sexualised images on their covers are not in easy sight of children. Retail associations in the news industry should do more to encourage observance of the voluntary code of practice on the display of magazines and newspapers with sexualised images on their covers. ”

“ And since research does show that people convicted of serious crimes of violence and sexual violence often have a history of using pornography (Papadopoulos, 2010) , many respondents advocate a common sense approach to accept the potential for real harm to be caused to children by the ready access to such material. ”

“ Age verification online is an allied issue. We know that current online age-verification methods offer scant control or protection.The fact that we do not have a national identity system in the UK is sometimes offered as a reason why age verification cannot be improved. ”

“ Further, we do not believe they should simply rely on audiences 'voting with their remote controls' to determine what audiences would find acceptable: the onus is on broadcasters to show acceptable content in the first place, not to react to audience complaints after the event. ”

“ Many parents feel that this culture is often inappropriate for their children and they want more power to say 'no'. Some parts of the business world and sections of the media seem to have lost their connection to parents and this is compounded in some new media where there is limited regulation. ”

“ For example, children became convinced that they had to behave and look like the on—screen participants in order to have 'proper' sex; which generally meant sex without any basis in love or display of affection or equality ”

“ Whilst underage and inappropriate use of these services is against the terms and conditions of most sites, the sheer volume of content uploaded each day, and the fact that it is 'owned' by the user, means that many organisations are either reluctant to commit to removing it or do not have the resources to do so. ”

“ However, many contributors to the Review, including child protection organisations, schools, local authorities, child psychologists, youth workers, agony aunts, women's organisations and internet safety organisations amongst others, provided compelling examples to illustrate their concern that pornography has a negative impact on children and young people. ”

“ The broadcasters contributing to the Review also reported that parents often welcome the opportunities to talk to their children that arise from the storylines in popular dramas: they can discuss the difficult social or moral issues raised by the plots and characterisations with their children but without having to make the discussion personal. ”

“ In our research (Goldstone 8- Slesenger, 20 70) 700 per cent of adults surveyed felt that potentially harmful content in videos, including music videos, which are presently exempt from classification, ought to be classified, and the classification decision enforced. Content freely availably to children and shown to respondents included topless lap dancing; strip tease routines; other sexualised breast nudity; and sexualised violence."
BBFC, Call for Evidence response
34. ”

“ However, given that filters are not completely effective, we would still want parents to be actively responsible for the safety of their children and take an ongoing interest in their use of the internet. ”

“ Publishers and distributors should provide such magazines in modesty sleeves, or make modesty boards available, to all outlets they supply and strongly encourage the appropriate display of their publications. Retailers should be open and transparent to show that they welcome and will act on customer feedback regarding magazine displays. ”