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Letting Children be Children


 * Parents have told us that they feel they cannot make their voices heard, and that they often lack the confidence to speak out on sexualisation and commercialisation issues for fear of being labelled a prude or out of touch.
 * Business and industry sectors and their regulators need to make clear that they welcome, and take seriously, feedback on these subjects.
 * Given the technology available, regulators and businesses should be able to find more effective ways to encourage parents to tell them what they think, quickly and easily, and to be transparent in telling parents how they are responding to that feedback.
 * Once parents know that their views are being taken seriously, we would expect them to respond positively towards companies that listen to their concerns.

That parents find it easier to voice their concerns, are listened to more readily when they do, and have their concerns visibly acted on by businesses and regulators.

Making it easier for parents to express their views to businesses about goods and services. All businesses that market goods or services to children should have a one—click link to their complaints service from their home page, clearly labelled 'complaints'. Information provided as part of the complaints and feedback process should state explicitly that the business welcomes comments and complaints from parents about issues affecting children. Businesses should also provide timely feedback to customers in reaction to customer comment. For retail businesses this should form part of their code of good practice (see Theme 2, Recommendation 6), and should also cover how to make it 18