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Letting Children be Children

“I don’t know why grown-ups find it so difficult, it’s really very simple. There should be another button on the remote control like the red button so that if you see something that isn’t right on television then you can press it to tell them you don’t like it. And if more than a thousand people press it then the programme is automatically cut off”. So said the enthusiastic 10-year-old at a research presentation from a group of children to the Review team. “It’s really very simple.”

When Sarah Teather MP, the Minister of State for Children and Families, approached me to lead an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood I was delighted to be asked, but I was under no illusions that it was likely to be very simple.

Previous reviews of these issues have been led by eminent academics and practitioners. I am neither, but took on this task as someone who is passionately interested in supporting family life, not only through my job as Chief Executive of Mothers’ Union, a charity supporting parents and children in 83 countries of the world, but also as a parent and grandparent.

We live in a society that is changing at what is, for many, a bewildering rate. Increased levels of wealth have created strong commercial pressures on every one of us, whether or not we have participated in that affluence. Society also seems to have become more openly sexualised; the rapidly changing technological environment has its benefits in so many ways but has also made the seamier side of humanity inescapable.

If adults need to be emotionally and otherwise well adjusted to deal with this environment; so much more so do children.

I wanted to understand the nature of these pressures on our children and young people. I wanted to understand, too, why so many parents seem to lack confidence in their ability to help their children navigate this commercial and sexualised world. Most of all I wanted to bring forward some clear and straightforward suggestions to address these issues and ensure we provide the right sort of support for parents and children alike. 2