- Children think there is too much sex on television and
that the media and pop stars gratuitously use naked flesh as a marketing
tool, a study revealed yesterday.
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- Research for the official television watchdogs found
that nine to 17-year-olds were "media-savvy" and "cynical"
and were "not the naive or incompetent consumers they are frequently
assumed to be".
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- Two-thirds of children said they had seen a programme
or video that contained "too much" sexual content, although 64
per cent of them carried on watching.
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- As part of the research, the children were shown pop
videos featuring Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya and Li'l
Kim. One 12-year-old boy said of Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U"
video: "She's selling us her looks basically. I think she's not got
anything in between her ears - and her voice isn't really that good either."
Claims by Spears that she was preserving her virginity were "widely
questioned and mocked" by the children.
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- Andrea Millwood Hargrave, research director of the Broadcasting
Standards Commission (BSC), said: "The children were quite cynical
about sexual images and depiction in pop videos. They were quite tough
on celebrities. There is a sense here that sex is used to compensate for
other deficiencies."
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- The findings come from interviews with 120 children aged
from nine to 17, and 70 parents, as well as a questionnaire survey of almost
800 children. The report also includes data from a two-year study by London
University of 10 to 14-year-olds. It was commissioned by the BSC, the Independent
Television Commission, the BBC, the Advertising Standards Authority and
the British Board of Film Classification.
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- Most of the children were blase about "Page 3"
pictures of women in newspapers. The report says: "While some might
perceive 'pin-up' images of the Page 3 variety as a prehistoric relic of
patriarchy, many of the children whom we interviewed saw them as merely
a banal fact of life."
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- Researchers found that 68 per cent of children turned
to the media for information about sex and that they rejected the notion
that they were vulnerable to media exploitation. Only 66 per cent of children
asked their mothers for sex information. Fathers - who were consulted on
sexual matters by only 34 per cent of children - were ranked as no more
important as a source of advice than "posters and advertisements".
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- Ms Millwood Hargrave said children had spoken of their
fathers "hiding behind the newspaper" when sexual content appeared
on television. One 12-year-old boy told researchers: "My mum doesn't
say anything about sex on television because she knows I know everything
about sex and relationships."
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- The researchers noted: "Most children claimed to
have enjoyed a state of absolute knowledge from about the age of 11."
The study found, however, that this knowledge was "much less than
absolute".
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- One pair of 10-year-olds told the researchers that they
had been "going out together" since the age of five.
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- Middle-class children were supportive of gay rights but
working-class youngsters were frequently homophobic. Younger boys demonstrated
"homosexual panic" when looking at pictures of semi-naked men
in advertisements. Gay "seemed to serve as a catch-all term denoting
something to be feared", the report said.
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=462616
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