Padded bras for six year olds. Pole dancing kits for children. T-shirts with “Miss Floozy” plastered on the front.  Are children turning into mini-adults? A new Senate inquiry, initiated by the Democrats, is set to find out.

Focusing on the sexual representation of children in the media, the inquiry covers radio, television, children’s magazines, advertising, and the internet.

“Inquires always have the great advantage of opening the question to debate,” explains Senator Lyn Allison, the leader of the Australian Democrats. The inquiry, which reports June 23, 2008, will take submissions from all members of the community.

“We take submissions from ordinary parents, through to specialists in early childhood development, and we will hear presumably from the industry itself which will no doubt attempt to justify what it does and argue for no change,” says Senator Allison.

Issues surrounding the increasing sexualisation of children have been a hot topic for some years. Internet groups such as Kids Free 2B Kids, founded in early 2007 by mother of two, Julie Gale, are vocal about the way children are portrayed in the media.

This week the issue has been brought into the spotlight once again, when the 14-year-old Polish model, Monika Jagaciak, was banned from the catwalks during Australian Fashion Week.

The Australian Psychological Society have also thrown in their two cents, releasing a “tip sheet” for parents to help their children cope with the effects of early sexualisation.

Despite all this, Senator Allison, believes the problem does not get the attention it deserves.

“It is often the case when the dollars speak louder than the welfare of children, they are likely to not want to admit it,” she says. “ I think they know very well and they will justify their position. Is government in denial? Yes I think so, it’s not been a high priority,” she insists.

A recent report by the American Psychological Association (APA), has made the topic even more crucial for the Democrats, by linking sexualisation with the most common health problems of girls and women; eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression.

Louise Newman, Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry at the University of Newcastle, is not surprised.

“I have had children as young as four years of age entering school, and worried that they look fat or ugly when they are quite normal children,” she says. This, she points out, is a result of a range of magazines targeting the 10-year-old and under market that promote the slim blonde Barbie image that as “the epitome of success".

The sexualisation of young girls is also occurring at the other end of the age spectrum. “The other aspect is where we see adult women in fashion shoots are depicted as infantile objects,” she says.

Professor Newman suggests that the magazines teach girls that, “their self worth is caught up in being attracted to boys. That they should become very interested in this sort of thing, how to attract boys, keep boys, set up competitive relationships to other girls.”

It’s not only the children that Professor Newman is worried about. These images give a chilling message to paedophiles, who tell her that they find these images sexually arousing.

“This man actually said to me ‘How can I possibly take society seriously when they say not to get sexually aroused by children, when they are showing these images all the time?’” she says.

“He was someone who would explicitly go and get advertising catalogues and look at the images of children because of the way they are presented.”

The magazines however are not the only problem. According to the APA report, 44 to 81 per cent of musical videos contain sexual imagery, 15 per cent of songs contain sexually degrading lyrics, and 27 per cent of games have sexual themes.

The report also focused on some of the popular toys marketed to children. Bratz, a multi-ethnic range of dolls, representing teenagers with interests in fashion, boys and music, were singled out. The toy is also hugely popular in Australia, with 5.9 million products sold in Australia over 2007.

The way children are portrayed in advertisements has also become a serious concern. In a submission to the inquiry, a community member called for “the sexualisation of children to be completely banned in all advertising.”

Colin Segelov, executive director of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), said that a new Children’s Advertising and Marketing Communications Code will be introduced in the next couple of weeks.

“We already have an advertising for children code,” explains Mr Segelov. “But we decided 12 months ago to review that code. It’s got two clauses and it effectively prohibits sexualisation of children,” he says.

Although Mr Segelov admits that it is difficult to define what exactly constitutes sexualisation, the AANA bases it’s definition on prevailing community standards.

However, according to Alison Abernethy, the CEO of the Advertising Standards Bureau, less than 3% of the complaints received by the ABS in 2007 are about children in advertising.

The ABS uses Section 2 of the Advertising Code of Ethics, as well as the AANA Code of Advertising to Children Code when making its decisions.

“They will look at whether the child is posed naturally, “ says Ms Abernethy. “So the child shouldn’t be in adult-like poses, the child shouldn’t be wearing makeup, the child should be engaged in childlike activities not adult-like activities,” she explains.

The problem however, is that many of the ads that have sparked anger among parents do not involve children, but do contain sexual connotations. In one submission to the inquiry, a mother of three complained that her daughter was exposed to an ad showing a woman pulling down her jeans on her way to school. Billboards advertising brothels and longer lasting sex have also been subject to much discussion.

These however, are not regulated under the advertising for children code.

“In any complaint that comes which is about children or a product for children then we look at it under the advertising for children code. The sexuality and nudity is about adult portrayals,” says Ms Abernethy.

According to Alan McKee, Associate Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, the public has become confused about what exactly constitutes sexualisation of children.

“What happened is that a number of quite distinct community concerns have all been collapsed together under this misleading title of sexualising of children in the media,” says Professor McKee, author of five books on popular culture and television.

The community, he says, is concerned about children becoming part of a capitalist society, and whether it’s acceptable that they become targets for advertisers and marketers.

“Now that is a very real concern for a lot of people, but it’s really not about the sexualisation of children,” he says.

He points that while researching the issue for the Senate inquiry, he couldn’t find sexualised images of children, and feels that a lot of the complaints are unfounded. Padded bras for six year olds is one example

“This one keeps coming up, and I’ve actually looked into it and you can’t buy a padded bra for a six year old. You can buy a lined bra, or a lined bikini top,” he says.

Another one is pole-dancing kits for young girls, which again he says do not exist.

Nor are children being sexualised at an earlier age, he says.

“That also turns out to be not true historically, when you consider that the age of consent in Australia at the start of the 20th century was 12 years old,” says Professor McKee.

Professor McKee blames the hype on the rising number of newspaper reports on sexual abuse, which makes people think there is a link between children and sexuality. However, sexual abuse, he points has always existed, but it seems more predominant today because in the past it was not reported.

“When you look at them, a lot of those stories are in the past, so that children are now coming forward saying I was sexually abused in the 30’s 40’s 50’s 60’s, but nobody would believe it in those days,” explains Professor McKee.

He pointed that the recent Mullighan report that looked at the history of sexual abuse in Australia has found that 200 Wards of State were abused during the previous decades.

“And you actually had accusations of 792 cases of sexual abuse,” he adds, “It’s just that not all of them are wards of the states. Some people seem to be trying to hijack that debate by taking their own issues, and stealing the language of child and child sexual abuse to try and make their issues seem more important,” says Professor McKee.

Whether this point of view proves to be true, only time will tell. The debate about the sexualisation of children is not likely to simmer down any time soon. The inquiry will only be the beginning, hopes Seantor Allison.

“The advantage of the senate inquiry is that it will make recommendations and the government is obliged at some stage to respond to them,” says Senator Allison. “So it does get bureaucrats and ministers thinking about this issue,” she says.

 Image supplied by Mot

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