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Sexualisation of Young People ReviewSexualisation of Young PeopleReviewby Dr Linda Papadopoulos

Dr Linda PapadopoulosDr Linda Papadopoulos is one of the most well-known and respected psychologistsworking in the UK. Her comments regarding the psychology behind news andcurrent events are often syndicated by the press and discussed by television andradio networks both in Britain and in America.She has a very prolific academic publication record and has published widely in peerreviewed academic journals in the field of Counselling and Medical psychology. Shehas also written several academic and self-help books and is often invited to givespecialist lectures at numerous universities and medical schools both in England andthroughout the world.Founder and director of the successful Programme in Counselling Psychology atthe London Metropolitan University, Dr Papadopoulos was appointed Reader inpsychology in 2001 – a great distinction at such a young age.Dr Papadopoulos is a chartered counselling and health psychologist who hasworked in various treatment settings both privately, with her own practice andin the National Health Service. During her 12 years as a chartered psychologist,she has gained extensive experience in the counselling of individuals, couples andfamilies.With a prolific and distinguished career that keeps her very busy, Dr Papadopoulosvalues her free time. She enjoys family life in London with her husband and theiryoung daughter.

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewContentsForeword 31. Executive summary 52. Introduction 173. Background and context 194. What is sexualisation and why does it matter? 225. Sexualised content and the mainstreaming of pornography 336. The impact of sexualisation 537. Sexualisation and violence 658. Recommendations 759. Bibliography 8510. Acknowledgements 1001

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Sexualisation of Young People ReviewForewordhyper-sexualisation and objectificationof girls on the one hand, and hypermasculinisationof boys on the other,perpetuate and reinforce each other.Throughout the course of the review,what has become very apparent is thatsexualisation is a multi-factorial issueand therefore needs to be approachedfrom a range of perspectives, taking intoaccount not only the emotional andcognitive development of children but alsothe influence of family, culture and societyas a whole.When I was approached by the HomeSecretary to conduct an independentreview on the impact of the sexualisationof young girls on violence against women,I genuinely welcomed the opportunity totake a critical look at this area. As botha psychologist and as a mother, I wasvery aware that this was a topic that wasgaining increasing amounts of attentionboth in academic literature and thepopular press.Although the original intention of thereview was to focus on how sexualisationis affecting girls, it quickly became evidentthat we could not talk about girls withoutacknowledging the concomitant impacton boys and the hyper-masculinisedimages and messages that surround them.The scope of the review was thereforewidened to encompass the sexualisationof all young people and to look at howOver the past months, my team and I havereviewed hundreds of articles from thefields of psychology, sociology, education,politics and media. We have interviewedpeople working on the front-line withabused children and abusers. We havespoken to young people, parents, teachers,clinicians, academics, policy-makers andlobbyists. What came across loud and clearis that this is a very emotive issue – and so,I wanted to ensure that the evidencewas presented as objectively as possibleso that a public debate could ensue andinformed decisions about how to addressthese issues could be made. This is not anopinion piece, the evidence and argumentspresented within this document are notbased on conjecture but on empirical datafrom peer reviewed journals, and evidencefrom professionals and clinicians. Behindthe social commentary and the headlinesabout inappropriate clothing and gamesfor children, there are the real statistics, onteenage partner violence, sexual bullyingand abuse that need to be acknowledgedand addressed.3

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewIn addressing these issues we must notforget that sexual curiosity is a normalfeature of childhood and thereforewe need to provide young peoplewith the tools that will enable themto deal with sexual content safely andsuccessfully. I believe that providing ourkids with a set of realistic, non-exploitativerepresentations of gender and sexualitywould go a long way towards ensuringtheir healthy emotional – and sexual– development and promoting genderequality.I want my little girl, indeed, all girls andboys, to grow up confident about whothey are and about finding and expressingtheir individuality and sexuality, but notthrough imposed gender stereotypesor in a way that objectifies the bodyor commodifies their burgeoningsexuality. This review is a step towardsunderstanding how, as parents, aseducators and as citizens we can takeresponsibility for creating safe andsupportive environments for our childrento understand and explore relationshipsand sexuality – and ensure that they do soin their own time and at their own pace.4

Sexualisation of Young People Review1. Executive summary“How have sex, sexiness and sexualisationgained such favour in recent years as to be themeasure by which women’s and girls’ worth isjudged? While it is not a new phenomenon byany means, there is something different aboutthe way it occurs today and how it impacts onyounger and younger girls.” 11. Violence against women andgirls is unacceptable, whateverthe circumstances and whateverthe context. In March 2009, thegovernment launched the TogetherWe Can End Violence Against Womenand Girls consultation in order to raiseawareness of the problem and explorepolicy proposals and ideas designed tohelp prevent violence against womenand girls. This report forms part ofthat consultation. 12. This review looks at how sexualisedimages and messages may be affectingthe development of children andyoung people and influencing culturalnorms, and examines the evidencefor a link between sexualisationand violence. The decision by thegovernment to commission this reviewreflects the importance of the issueand the popular perception thatyoung people (and in particular youngwomen and girls) are increasinglybeing pressured into appearingsexually available. The report looksat examples and the prevalence ofsexualisation in culture and proposesmechanisms by which sexualisedmessages are being internalised andthe consequences of these on youngpeople.3. The world is saturated by moreimages today than at any othertime in our modern history. Behindeach of these images lies a messageabout expectations, values and ideals.Women are revered – and rewarded– for their physical attributes and bothgirls and boys are under pressure toemulate polarised gender stereotypesfrom a younger and younger age.The evidence collected in this reportsuggests these developments arehaving a profound impact, particularlyon girls and young women.1McLellan, Sexualised and Trivialized – MakingEquality Impossible. Quoted in: Tankard Reist(2010)5

Sexualisation of Young People Review6Sexualisation, learningand development4. Healthy sexuality is an importantcomponent of both physical andmental health. When based on mutualrespect between consenting partners,sex fosters intimacy, bonding andshared pleasure. 2 Sexualisation is theimposition of adult sexuality on tochildren and young people before theyare capable of dealing with it, mentally,emotionally or physically.5. While sexualised images have featuredin advertising and communicationssince mass media first emerged,what we are seeing now is anunprecedented rise in both thevolume and the extent to which theseimages are impinging on everydaylife. Increasingly, too, children arebeing portrayed in ‘adultified’ wayswhile adult women are ‘infantilised’. 3This leads to a blurring of thelines between sexual maturity andimmaturity and, effectively, legitimisesthe notion that children can be relatedto as sexual objects.6. A number of factors shape theway children and young people areresponding to the sexualisation ofculture. One of the most significantis the individual child’s age andlevel of cognitive and emotionaldevelopment. Regardless of a child’slevel of sophistication, when it comesto internalising media and advertisingmessages, there is a large bodyof research from developmentalpsychologists that attests to the factthat young children do not havethe cognitive skills to cope withpersuasive media messages. 4 There2Satcher (2001)3Evidence provided to the review byDr K. Sarikakis (2009)4Mayo & Nairn (2009)is also the cumulative or ‘drip drip’effect of exposure to sexualisedmessages, themes and images overtime and in diverse settings. Childrenand young people now have easyaccess to material that may not beage-appropriate. Core cognitivelearning and developmental theoriesdemonstrate that children learnvicariously from what they see, andthat exposure to themes which a childis not developmentally ready to copewith can have a detrimental effect. 57. Children and young people todayare not only exposed to increasingamounts of hyper-sexualised images,they are also sold the idea that theyhave to look ‘sexy’ and ‘hot’. As suchthey are facing pressures that childrenin the past simply did not have to face.As children grow older, exposure tothis imagery leads to body surveillance,or the constant monitoring of personalappearance. This monitoring can resultin body dissatisfaction, a recognisedrisk factor for poor self-esteem,depression and eating disorders. 6Indeed, there is a significant amount ofevidence that attests to the negativeeffects of sexualisation on youngpeople in terms of mental and physicalhealth, attitudes and beliefs. 78. If we are going to address this issuethen young people need to developand grow in surroundings wherethey are admired for their abilities,talents and values. It is important tostress however, that in the diverse,multicultural UK context, cultural,religious and class backgrounds willinvariably influence the family’s role inmediating sexualised media content5Bandura (1971); Bem (1981)6McKinley (1999); Moradi et al. (2005); Polivy,Herman et al. (2002); Tolman, Impett, Tracy andMichael (2006)7Abramson and Valene (1991); Durkin andPaxton (2002); Harrison (2000)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewand views of what is appropriateand acceptable. The psychologicalramifications of sexualisation, fromviolence in teenage relationships toself-objectification, are seen acrossdiverse class systems, suggestingthat the issue of sexualisation is notconfined to either a single race or class.Sexualisedcontent and themainstreaming ofpornography9. Children and young people areexposed to an unprecedentedrange of media content, through anever-growing number of channels.Furthermore, the proportion ofthat content which is sexual oreven pornographic is increasing at adramatic rate. Until relatively recently,there was a way to at least try andensure that these were targeted tothe right audience. However, there isno ‘watershed’ on the internet, andsexualised images and adverts mayappear anywhere and are often sentindiscriminately to e-mail accounts andmobile phones.10. With proliferation comesnormalisation. It is no surprisetherefore that when researchersexamine the content of youngpeople’s web pages they find thatyoung teens are posting sexuallyexplicit images of themselves on socialnetworking sites, and self-regulatingeach other with sexist, derogatory anddemeaning language. 811. In order to genuinely understandone of the main factors at play here,namely how young people internalisethe messages they are exposed to,it is important to look at the socialscripts children are being influenced byand what makes children susceptibleto them.Magazines, marketing andadvertising12. A dominant theme in magazinesseems to be the need for girls topresent themselves as sexuallydesirable in order to attract maleattention. 9 Worryingly, there is also atrend for children in magazines to bedressed and posed in ways designedto draw attention to sexual featuresthat they do not yet have. At the sametime, advice on hairstyles, cosmetics,clothing, diet, and exercise attemptto remake even young readers asobjects of male desire, 10 promotingpremature sexualisation. 11 In the caseof boys, ‘lads’ mags’ contain a highdegree of highly sexualised images ofwomen that blur the lines betweenpornography and mainstream media.The predominant message for boysis to be sexually dominant and toobjectify the female body.13. Over the past three decades there hasbeen a dramatic increase in the useof sexualised imagery in advertising.While most of this imagery featureswomen, 12 there has also been asignificant increase in the numberof sexualised images of children. 13Sexualised ideals of young, thin, beautylead to ideals of bodily perfectionthat are difficult to attain, even forthe models, which perpetuates theindustry practice of ‘airbrushing’photographs. These images can lead9Carpenter (1998); Durham (1998); Garner,Sterk, and Adams (1998); McMahon (1990)10Duffy and Gotcher (1996)11Rush and La Nauze (2006)8Ringrose (2008)12Reichert et al. (1999)13Tankard-Reist (2010)7

Sexualisation of Young People Review8people to believe in a reality that doesnot exist, which can have a particularlydetrimental effect on adolescents. 1414. At the same time, marketers areeffectively encouraging young girlsto present themselves in a sexualway. Bratz dolls for example, arechild‐friendly characters presented ina notably sexualised way. 15 Pencil casesand stationery for school childrencarry the Playboy bunny logo. Paddedbras, thongs and high heeled shoes aremarketed and sold to children as youngas eight. Such blurring suggests that itis acceptable to impose adult sexualthemes onto children, and potentiallyrelate to children as sexual objects. 16Television, film and music15. Women on TV are far more likelythan their male counterparts tobe provocatively dressed 17 andscenes of violence against womenare increasingly common. A recentreport found that depictions ofviolence against women on TV hadrisen by 120 per cent since 2004while violence against teenage girlsrose by 400 per cent. 18 There is alsoa significant under-representation ofwomen and girls in non-sexualisedroles in films. In the 101 highestearning family films between 1990–2004 over 75% of characters weremale, 83% of narrators were male and72% of speaking roles were male. 19By missing the chance to present girlswith a diverse range of charactersto identify with, the visibility ofmore hyper-sexualised heroines willinevitably have a bigger impact.14Coleman (2008)15Evidence provided to the review by the BritishBoard of Film Classification (2009)16Buckleitner and Foundation (2008)17Eaton (1997)18www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/womeninperil/main.asp19Kelly and Smith (2006)16. Music channels and videos across allgenres have been found to sexualiseand objectify women. 20 Women areoften shown in provocative andrevealing clothing and are depicted asbeing in a state of sexual readiness.Males on the other hand are shownas hyper-masculine and sexuallydominant. Research into the oftensexual and violent content of musiclyrics is comparatively thin on theground. However, an importantconnection between sexualised musiclyrics and their influence on shapingyoung people’s early sexual activityis that the causality is not just relatedto sexual content of lyrics, but also totheir degrading nature. 21New technologies17. Over 80 per cent of young peopleuse the internet daily or weekly 22 andaround a third of 8–11-year-olds and60 per cent of 12–15-year-olds saythat they mostly use the internet ontheir own. 23 Almost half of childrenaged 8–17 and a quarter of thoseaged between eight and 11 have aprofile on a social networking sitesuch as Bebo, MySpace or Facebook. 24While sites set age limits (typically13 or 14), these are not generallyenforced. Social networking sitesallow children and young peopleto create online identities. Girls, forinstance, report being under increasingpressures to display themselves intheir ‘bra and knickers’ or bikinisonline, whereas boys seek to displaytheir bodies in a hyper-masculine wayshowing off muscles, and posturing aspowerful and dominant. 25 Sexualised20Andsager and Roe (1999); Seidman (1992);Sommers-Flanagan and Davis (1993)21Matino et al (2006). Quoted in Coy (2009)22Livingstone, Bober and Helsper (2005)23Ofcom (2009)24Ofcom (2008)25Ringrose (2010)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewself-presentation could also mean thatyoung people are exposing themselvesto danger: recently, public attentionhas focused on the use of socialnetworking sites to sexually solicitunderage children and young people.18. With the rise of the internet, it is notnow a case of if a young person willbe exposed to pornography but when.Before the mainstreaming of internetaccess, it was asserted that the averageage of first exposure to pornographywas 11 for males 26 ; however, latestresearch suggest that this age is nowmuch lower. 27 A recent YouGov surveyfound that 27 per cent of boys areaccessing pornography every week,with 5 per cent viewing it every day.The survey also found that 58 percent had viewed pornography online,on mobile phones, in magazines, infilms or on TV. Another study showedthat a quarter of young people hadreceived unsolicited pornographic junkmail or instant messages while almostone in eight had visited pornographicwebsites showing violent images. 2819. By the age of 15, 95 per cent of youngpeople have their own mobile phone. 29Mobile phones allow young peopleeasy access to all kinds of onlinecontent, regardless of whether or notit is appropriate. Figures show that in2007, mobile phones were the UK’sbiggest distributor of pornography. 30The use of mobile phones as a toolfor bullying, controlling or monitoringa dating-partner has attractedconsiderable media attention recently,and was frequently raised during theevidence sessions held as part ofthis review. 31 Mobile phones are alsobeing used for so-called ‘sexting’ – thesending, often unsolicited, of sexuallyexplicit messages.20. With advances in technology, videogames are becoming increasinglygraphic and realistic. 32 At the sametime, children are more and morelikely to play games without adultsupervision: three-quarters of12–15-year-olds have a games consolein their bedroom. 33 Many gamesfeature highly sexualised content andthere is a notable lack of strong femalecharacters. 34 The link between violentcontent and aggression has been citedin several studies 35 and it is widelyaccepted that exposure to contentthat children are either emotionallyor cognitively not mature enough forcan have a negative impact. Whereasparents are not likely to allow theirchildren to watch an 18 film, they aremuch more lenient when it comes toallowing their children to play ageinappropriategames. This may bebecause they do not fully understandeither the realism or the themes thatthese games contain.The role of parents, schoolsand corporate responsibility21. The evidence so far indicates thatit is time we critically examine thecumulative effect of the mediamessages to which our children areexposed and how we can mitigate anynegative effects resulting from them.Installing filters on computers andlocks on mobile phones is of courseimportant. But sexualised content26Bryant (1985)27Greenfield (2004)28Livingstone and Bober et al. (2005)29Ofcom (2008)30Juniper Research, Quoted in: Daw and Cabb(2009)31Evidence Hearing Sessions for the Review(May 2009 – July 2010)32Martinez and Manolovitz (2009)33Ofcom (2009)34Dill and Thill (2007)35Anderson and Dill (2000); Freedman (2002);Deselms and Altman (2003)9

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewis everywhere and, often, childrenand young people are accessing italone, in a setting that gives themno opportunity to ask questions ordiscuss their feelings.22. Parents are a powerful force in shapingtheir children’s attitudes to genderand sexuality and have a vital roleto play in supporting their childrento cope with and contextualisesexualised images and messages.However, parents can also contributeto the sexualisation of their childrenin very direct ways. For example, byreinforcing self-objectification throughencouraging or supporting the use ofcosmetic surgery as a means of ‘fixing’poor body confidence or self-esteem– a phenomenon that is increasing atan alarming rate. 3623. Schools can help children developthe capacity to interpret and filterinformation and to recognise andvalue diversity. As such perhaps weneed to consider the value of medialiteracy and gender studies and beginto see them as core to the curriculumwe teach our children. Sex education,too, must focus on preparing youngpeople to form healthy, respectful,emotionally fulfilling relationships.24. Businesses must also play their parthere. There have been numerousreports over the past few yearsof how major high street retailershave promoted, and then on secondthought withdrawn, clothing, gamesand products for children that areundoubtedly age inappropriate. Thereis a clear role here for governmentto support and promote corporateresponsibility.The impact ofsexualisationBody image and genderinequality25. In the past it was adult women whofelt the imperative to look ‘hot’ and‘sexy’, now this imperative is beingadopted by younger and youngergirls who will inevitably face the samefeelings of inadequacy and failure tolive up to an unrealistic ideal. Themass media promotes and reinforcesan idealised notion of beauty forboth men and women, presentingstandards – of thinness for womenand of muscularity for men – that fewcan ever hope to achieve. The effectsof this are apparent – eating disordersare on the rise. The eating disordercharity BEAT estimates that 1.6 millionpeople in the UK have an eatingdisorder. The vast majority of these– some 1.4 million – are female. 37And now we’re starting to see whathappens when you tweak the message– young women need to be notonly thin, but also sexually desirable.As anorexia increases so now doesthe number of young women havingbreast implants at an increasinglyyounger age. 3826. It can be tempting to think thatgirls are taking the brunt, that boyshave it easier. But in some ways, themessages we are sending out to boysare just as limiting and restrictive: bemacho, be strong, don’t show youremotions. Hyper-sexualisation offemininity cannot exist without hypermasculinisationof males. They feed offand reinforce each other.1036www.cosmeticsurgerybible.com/2007/typesof-surgery/breast-enlargement/breast-implantslinked-to-suicide-risk/10537www.b-eat.co.uk/PressMediaInformation#iHn038Zuckerman and Abraham (2008)

Sexualisation of Young People Review27. Repeated exposure to genderstereotypicalideas and imagescontributes to sexist attitudes andbeliefs; sexual harassment; violenceagainst women; and stereotypedperceptions of, and behaviour toward,men and women. 39 Although sexualobjectification is but one form ofgender oppression, it is one thatfactors into – and perhaps enables –a host of other oppressions womenface, ranging from employmentdiscrimination and sexual violence tothe trivialisation of women’s work andaccomplishments. 40Mainstreaming of the sexindustry28. With the ubiquity of sexualisationand the increasing pornification ofsociety has come the mainstreamingof the sex industry, as exemplifiedby the proliferation of lap-dancingclubs. Sexualisation – and thecommodification of women and girls –is now so ingrained in our culture thatglamour modelling and lap-dancing arewidely viewed not only as acceptablebut in some cases aspirational. 4129. Sexualisation is tied to economicmarkets in the forms of beauty andsex industries, that both open andrestrict the breadth and variety ofidentities and ambitions open toyoung women. A growing number ofgirls are setting their sights on careersthat demand a ‘sexy’ image. Surveyshave found for instance that a highproportion of young women in theUK aspire to work as ‘glamour models’or lap-dancers. 42 A report released39Kilbourne and Lazarus (1987); Lazier-Smith(1989); UN Educational, Scientific, and CulturalOrganisation (1980)40Fredrickson and Roberts (1997)41Coy (2009), Coy and Garner (in press)42Deeley (2008)by the Department for Work andPensions 43 shows that Jobcentres areroutinely advertising for vacanciesat escort agencies, lap-dancing clubs,massage parlours and TV sex channels.We are seeing the normalisation ofthese trades as viable career choices.The fact that both within celebrity andpopular culture women are habituallyheralded as successful and celebratedfor their sex appeal and appearance– with little reference to their intellector abilities – sends out a powerfulmessage to young people about whatis of value and what they shouldfocus on.Sexualisation andviolence30. Research has shown that adults –including women 44 – who viewedsexually objectifying images of womenin the mainstream media were morelikely to be accepting of violence. 45The evidence gathered in thereview suggests a clear link betweenconsumption of sexualised images, atendency to view women as objectsand the acceptance of aggressiveattitudes and behaviour as the norm.Both the images we consume and theway we consume them are lendingcredence to the idea that women arethere to be used and that men arethere to use them.31. There is a significant amount ofevidence linking stereotypical attitudesto women’s sexuality and sexist beliefswith aggressive sexual behaviour. 4643www.parliament.uk/deposits/depositedpapers/2008/DEP2008-3155.doc44Johnson & Adams et al. (1995)45Kalof (1999); Lanis and Covell (1995)46Dean and Malamuth (1997); Malamuth andBriere (1986); Malamuth and Donnerstein(1982, 1984); Murnen, Wright and Kaluzny(2002); Osland, Fitch and Willis (1996); Spence,Losoff and Robbins (1991); Truman, Tokar andFischer (1996); Vogel (2000)11

Sexualisation of Young People Review12A recent Home Office survey foundthat 36 per cent of people believedthat a woman should be held whollyor partly responsible for being sexuallyassaulted or raped if she was drunk,while 26 per cent believed a womanshould accept at least part of theblame for an attack if she was outin public wearing sexy or revealingclothes. 47Young people, sexualbullying and violence32. The shocking results of a recent surveycarried out by the NSPCC showthat for many young people, violencewithin relationships is commonplace –one in three teenage girls aged 13–17had been subjected to unwantedsexual acts while in a relationship,and one in four had suffered physicalviolence. And, although both sexes areexperiencing partner violence, girls aresuffering more as a result. A significantproportion of the girls surveyed statedthat the violence had seriously affectedtheir welfare; for boys, there appearedto be few consequences. NSPCC’sHead of Child Protection AwarenessChris Cloke has described this asevidence of a ‘culture of confusionabout what is acceptable amonggirls and boys living in today’s highlysexualised landscape.’33. In gangs, rape and sexual assault isincreasingly becoming the weaponof choice. Assaulting a girl is usednot only to assert power over thegirl herself, but also over those whoassociate with her. And although gangsmake up only a small part of society inthe UK, the use of violence as a meansto punish and control is not just in thedomain of sub-cultures – as shown bythe results from the NSPCC surveyon teen partner violence. It seems thatnotions of power and control over the47Home Office (2009)female body, and the pressure on boysto conform to a hyper-masculine ideal,are having a very real effect on youngpeople’s day-to-day lives.34. There is growing evidence fromeducational and social scientists thatgirls are facing increasing sexismin the playground and classroom.Researchers have indicated that casesof sexual harassment and formsof gendered and sexualised namecalling and bullying may be on therise in both primary and secondary48, 49schools.Pornography and sexualaggression35. Pornography shapes young people’ssexual knowledge but does so byportraying sex in unrealistic ways.The nature of online pornography ischanging: it is increasingly dominatedby themes of aggression, power andcontrol, blurring the lines betweenconsent, pleasure and violence. 5036. Advances in technology are makingpornography more and moreaccessible to children and youngpeople. There is consistent andreliable evidence that exposure topornography is related to male sexualaggression against women. Prolongedexposure increases the likelihoodof consuming material that depictseither potentially ‘harmful’ or, whatthe UK government labels, ‘extreme’ 51sexual behaviours such as violentsex, sadomasochism and bestiality.High pornography use is not in itselfan indicator of high risk for sexualaggression. However, adults who48Duncan (2004); Renold, (2003); Ringrose (2008)49Please note, this figure does not include thetotal number of permanent exclusion in primaryand special school settings50Hanson and Tyd´en (2005); Dines (2008)51McGlynn, Ward and Rackley (2009)

Sexualisation of Young People Revieware already predisposed to violentactivity and who also score high forpornography use are much more likelyto engage in sexual aggression. 5237. There has been a marked increasein the number of sites that infantilisewomen. Adults exposed to ‘barelylegal’ or virtual child pornographymake stronger links between youthand sexuality than adults exposedto materials featuring older-lookingmodels. They are also more likelyto associate sex and sexuality withsubsequent non-sexual depictions ofminors. 53 When girls are dressed toresemble adult women, people mayassociate adult motives and even asense of adult responsibility onto thechild. Depicting young girls dressedor made up as sexually mature olderwomen may serve to normalizeabusive practices such as child abuseor sexual exploitation.Child abuse and sexualexploitation38. Child sexual abuse lies at theextreme end of the spectrum ofconsequences of sexualisation. Thepsychological effects of sexual abusecan be devastating, ranging frompost‐traumatic stress disorder, anxietyand depression, to sexual dysfunction,suicide and self-mutilation. It affects asignificant number of children in theUK – estimated at over 2 million –although the vast majority of childsexual abuse goes unreported. 54The majority of those who displaysexually harmful behaviour are actuallyadolescent males, with 25-40 per centof all alleged sexual abuse involvingyoung perpetrators. 5539. An issue of concern is that thesexualisation of girls is contributing toa market for child abuse images (oftenreferred to as ‘child pornography’in the media) or sex with children.The fact that young girls are stylingthemselves in overtly sexuallyprovocative ways for other youngpeople’s consumption – whether thisbe on social networking sites or viaphotographs sent by email or mobilephones – makes them potentiallyvulnerable. Young people themselvesare now producing and swapping whatis in effect ‘child pornography’ – a factborne out by the growing numbers ofadolescents that are being convictedfor possession of this material. 5652Malamuth, Addison and Koss (2000)53Paul and Linz (2008)54Cawson et al. (2000)55www.nspcc.org.uk/WhatWeDo/MediaCentre/MediaBriefings/Policy/media_briefing_sexually_harmful_behaviour_wda33252.html56Carr (2004)13

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewConclusion40. There is broad agreement fromresearchers and experts in healthand welfare that sexualising childrenprematurely places them at riskof a variety of harms. 57 However,what we need is further empiricalevidence in the form of large scalelongitudinal studies that will lookin detail at the effects on boys andgirls of living in a sexualised cultureacross their development. Many ofthe mechanisms that have been citedas disseminating hyper-sexualisedideals to children are a consequenceof recent advancements in mediaand technology. Only now are webeginning to see a concerted effortby psychologists and other socialscientists to address this issue.41. Sexualisation is a profoundlyimportant issue that impactsindividuals, families and society asa whole. Unless sexualisation isaccepted as harmful, in line with theevidence presented in this report,and similar reports from the US andAustralia, we will miss an importantopportunity here: an opportunity tobroaden young people’s beliefs aboutwhere their value lies; to think aboutstrategies for guiding children aroundsexualisation and objectification;and to create new tools and spacesfor young people to develop andexplore their sexuality in their owntime and in their own way.RecommendationsEducation and schools1) All school staff to have training ongender equality. Specialist training shouldbe given to those who teach Personal,Social, Health and Economic (PSHE)education and citizenship.2) The Department for Children, Schoolsand Families (DCSF) to issue statutoryguidance to schools to promote a ‘wholeschool’ approach to tackling genderinequality, sexual and sexist bullying andviolence against women and girls.3) References on sexualisation, genderstereotypes and pornography to beincluded in DCSF’s revised Sex andRelationships Education (SRE) guidancefor schools. New SRE resource materialsshould be made available for teacherswho work with children with specialeducation needs and learning difficulties.4) Schools to ensure that all incidentsof sexual bullying are recorded andreported separately to other forms ofbullying.5) New practical ‘How To’ guidance ontackling sexualisation is disseminated toall schools.6) Primary schools should make specificreference to the influence of the mediaon body image and personal identitywithin a new programme of study on‘Understanding Physical Development,Health and Wellbeing’.571457APA (2007); Coy (2009); Malamuth (2001); Tankard-Reist (2010)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewRecommendations (cont.)7) A module on gender equality,sexualisation and sexist/sexual bullyingbe developed as part of the DCSF’sSocial and Emotional Aspects of Learning(SEAL) programme.8) Media literacy should be taught notonly through PSHE education but alsothrough English, drama, the arts, historyand citizenship.9) More investment in youth workers toenable them to work with young peopleoutside of mainstream education aroundthe issues of sexuality, sexist and sexualbullying and gender equality.10) The UK Council for Child InternetSafety (UKCCIS) to further develop itscurrent online resource centre whereparents can access internet safety advice.11) Digital literacy to be made acompulsory part of the national curriculumfor children from the age of five.12) The government should work withinternet service providers to blockaccess to pro-anorexia (‘pro-ana’) andpro-bulimia (‘pro-mia’) websites.13) A schools campaign to be developedwhich promotes positive role modelsfor young men and young women andchallenges gender stereotypes.14) Schools should encourage girls tovalue their bodies in terms of their physicalability. This should be linked to the work ofthe 2012 ‘Get Set’ education programme.15) Local Authorities must beaccountable for treating victims of childsexual abuse and ensure that specialistservices receive adequate funding forthe treatment of children who havebeen abused.16) One-to-one confidential helpin school/college from a trainedprofessional such as a psychologist to bemade available to every child and youngperson.Media and awareness-raising17) A national campaign to be launchedto address the issue of teenagerelationship abuse, including a specificpack for primary and secondary schoolsso that they can build on issues arisingfrom the campaign.18) A working group of high profilewomen in media together with academicsshould be set up to monitor and addressgender inequality in the media.19) The establishment of a media awardthat promotes diverse, aspirational andnon-sexualised portrayals of young people.20) The government to launch anonline ‘one-stop-shop’ to allow thepublic to voice their concerns regardingirresponsible marketing which sexualiseschildren with an onus on regulatoryauthorities to take action. The websitecould help inform future governmentpolicy by giving parents a forum toraise issues of concern regarding thesexualisation of young people.21) Information on body image, selfesteem,eating disorders and e-safetyto be included in the government’sproposed ‘Positive Parenting’ bookletsfor parents of older children.22) The government should supportthe Adversing Standards Agency(ASA) to take steps to extend theexisting regulatory standards to includecommercial websites.15

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewRecommendations (cont.)23) The introduction of a system ofratings symbols for photographs toshow the extent to which they havebeen altered. This is particularly critical inmagazines targeting teen and pre-teenaudiences.24) The content of outdooradvertisements to be vetted by localauthorities as part of their genderequality duty to ensure that imagesand messages are not offensive on thegrounds of gender.25) Broadcasters are required to ensurethat music videos featuring sexual posingor sexually suggestive lyrics are broadcastonly after the ‘watershed.’26) The current gap in the regulatoryprotection provided by the VideoRecordings Act 1984 to be closed byremoving the general exemption for‘works concerned with music’.27) Regulation of UK-based video ondemand services to be strengthened toensure that they do not allow children toaccess hardcore pornography.28) Games consoles should be sold withparental controls already switched on.Purchasers can choose to ‘unlock’ theconsole if they wish to allow access toadult and online content.29) This idea should be extended to‘child friendly’ computers and mobilephones where adult content is filteredout by default.Working with businesses and retailers30) The government to support theNSPCC in its work with manufacturersand retailers to encourage corporateresponsibility with regard to sexualisedmerchandise. Guidelines should beissued for retailers following consultationwith major clothing retailers and parents’groups.31) The existing voluntary code forretailers regarding the placements of‘lads’ mags’ should be replaced by amandatory code. ‘Lads’ mags’ should beclearly marked as recommended for saleonly to persons aged 15 and over.32) The government overturns itsdecision to allow vacancies for jobs inthe adult entertainment industry to beadvertised by Jobcentre Plus.Research33) A new academic periodical to beestablished and an annual conferenceseries should be held focusing solely onthe topic of sexualisation.34) Funding be made available forresearch that will strengthen the currentevidence base on sexualisation. Thisshould include trend research intoteenage partner violence and frequencyof sexual bullying and abuse.35) Clinical outcome research to befunded and supported to find the mosteffective ways to identify, assess andwork with the perpetrators and victimsof child sexual abuse.36) A detailed examination of medialiteracy programmes should be carriedout jointly by the DCSF, and theDepartment for Culture, Media andSport (DCMS).16

Sexualisation of Young People Review2. IntroductionSexualisation is a growing phenomenon:from magazines to TV to mobile phones,sexualised images and messages areeverywhere. Journalists, child advocacyorganisations, parents and psychologistsargue that this is having a damagingeffect on children and young people. 56This report aims to find out whetherthis is really the case, and to explorethe possible links between exposureto sexualised images and content andviolence against women and girls.This report was commissioned by theHome Office Violent Crime Unit as partof the Together We Can End ViolenceAgainst Women consultation, launched inearly 2009. The consultation called for ‘afact-finding review into the sexualisationof teenage girls’. This, broadly, is thereview’s remit, although evidence relatingto the sexualisation of pre-teenagechildren and of boys as well as girls hasalso been included. 58The report begins by summarising thebackground to the sexualisation debateand some of the main theories of howyoung people learn and develop. It goeson to look at the volume and spread ofsexualised images and content by mediachannel and at the possible impact this hason self-esteem, body image, mental healthand personal relationships. It also considersthe possible links between sexualisationand violence. Finally, the report suggestsrecommendations for research, clinicalpractice, education and training, policy andawareness-raising.It is not the intention of this review toenter into a theoretical debate on theprecise definition of sexualisation (seeChapter 4). The evidence gatheredhere suggests that the proliferation andaccessibility of sexualised content may bejeopardising the mental and physical wellbeingof young people in the UK. Our aimis to focus attention on the need for acollaborative approach to safeguardingyoung people and promoting a healthytransition from childhood to adulthood.This report is concerned primarily withthe rights of the child, and with protectingthe health, well-being and safety of everychild in the UK.MethodologyThe report is based on a critical, thoroughand comprehensive desk-based reviewof available data on the sexualisation ofyoung people. We have drawn on existinggovernment research and statistics, lobbygroup publications and academic journalsin order to build a comprehensive picture.Stakeholders have also been invited tosubmit their views on processes andstructures relating to the sexualisationof young people and possible links withviolence. Those responding to the call forevidence included:58American Psychological Association Task Forceon the Sexualisation of Girls (2007). Hereinreferred to as ‘APA’17

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewC. Bankes and I. McGibbon – Gangs, TKAP,Violent Crime Unit, Home OfficeC. Banatvala, A. Marsden – Director ofStandards, OfcomM. Banos-Smith – WomankindC. Barter – University of BristolD. Buckingham – Professor of Education,Institute of Education and Director, Centrefor the Study of Children, Youth and MediaO. Campbell and L. Taffe – AdvertisingStandards AgencyC. Christie – Taskforce on ViolenceAgainst Women and Children,Department of HealthM. Coy – Child and Woman AbuseStudies Unit, London MetropolitanUniversityF. Crow – Assistant Director, NationalChildren’s BureauC. Dawes – Department for Culture,Media and Sport (DCMS)S. Delaney – Team Manager, BirminghamSexually Harmful Behaviour TeamS. Dyer – BeatbullyingR. Einhorn – NSPCC Sexual ExploitationServiceL. Emmerson – Sex Education ForumC. Firmin – Race on the AgendaG. Frances, J. Sharpen and F. Mackay –Members of the VAWG Advisory GroupR. Gill – Professor and Director Centrefor Cultural, Media and Creative IndustriesResearch, Kings College, LondonD. Glover – Commissioner of FactualProgramming, Channel 4C. Green and H. Elsdon-Smithers –White Ribbon CampaignD. James-Hanman – Director, GreaterLondon Domestic Violence ProjectK. Iwi – RespectP. Johnson – British Board of FilmClassificationM. J. Kehily – Senior Lecturer, Childhoodand Youth Studies, Open UniversityL. Lawrence – Policy Lead on Personal,Social and Health Education, CurriculumUnit, Department for Children, Schoolsand FamiliesS. Levenque and A. Heeswijk – OBJECTA. Martinez – Sex Education ForumE. Mayo – Co-operatives UKT. Narducci, Z. Hilton and V. Patel – NSPCCN. O’Brien – Brook Advisory CentreT. Palmer – founder, Marie CollinsFoundationA. Ramage – Series Producer, SexEducation versus Pornography, EndemolK. Richardson – Child Exploitation &Online Protection CentreJ. Ringrose – Senior Lecturer, Sociologyof Gender and Education, Institute ofEducationK. Sarikakis – Director, Centre forInternational Communications Research,University of LeedsA. Speechly – Youth Justice Board18

Sexualisation of Young People Review3. Background and context“An integrated approach is necessary toensuring not only that violence againstwomen becomes universally regarded as anunacceptable and criminal violation of women’shuman rights, but also that victims of sexual,physical and psychological violence receive theattention and support that they need to be ableto escape and resolve their situation.” 59Violence against women and girls isunacceptable, whatever the circumstancesand whatever the context. The UKgovernment is committed to taking actionto further reduce the number of violentincidents and to counter the tendencyfor violence to become ‘normalised’.This literature review forms part of awider investigation into the underlyingcauses and impacts of violence againstwomen and girls. It sets out to identifyhow sexualised images and messages maybe affecting the development of childrenand young people and influencing culturalnorms with regard to sexual behaviourand attitudes. 59Over the past decade, a number ofgovernment departments have beenworking with voluntary organisations todeliver a package of measures designedto protect women and provide supportto victims of violence. There are currently31 legal frameworks in place, coveringissues including rape and sexual violence;domestic violence; female genitalmutilation; forced marriage; ‘honour’crimes; trafficking; sexual harassment; andmarital rape.With regard to children, local authoritiesand schools are required to work witheach other and with other children’sservices to support the Every ChildMatters agenda, which sets out five keyoutcomes for children and young people:• be healthy;• stay safe;• enjoy and achieve;• make a positive contribution; and• achieve economic well-being. 6059www.un-instraw.org/en/images/stories/Beijing/violenceagainstwomen.pdf60www.everychildmatters.gov.uk19

Sexualisation of Young People Review20Performance against these outcomes ismeasured by a set of National Indicators,which cover key areas relevant to thesexualisation agenda including supportingchildren’s emotional health and reducingthe rate of conception for under-18s.Some progress has been made. Overthe last decade the number of incidentsof domestic violence has more thanhalved while the conviction rate hasrisen significantly; however, there is stillmuch work to be done. Recent researchcarried out by the NSPCC and Sugar, 61 amagazine targeted at teenage girls, foundthat 45 per cent of girls surveyed hadbeen ‘groped’ against their wishes. AnotherNSPCC study, this time carried out withthe University of Bristol, 62 showed thata third of girls aged 13–17 had sufferedunwanted sexual acts within a relationshipand a quarter had been victims of physicalviolence. These findings form just a tinypart of the growing evidence for whatthe NSPCC’s Head of Child ProtectionAwareness Chris Cloke has describedas a ‘culture of confusion about what isacceptable among girls and boys living intoday’s highly sexualised landscape.’ 63The Home OfficeViolence AgainstWomen and GirlsstrategyThe Together We Can End ViolenceAgainst Women and Girls consultationwas launched in early 2009. The decisionto undertake this review as part of theconsultation reflects the importance of theissue and growing perception that youngpeople (and in particular young women61Published in Sugar magazine, 23 May 200662Barter, McCarry, Berridge and Evans (2009)63NSPCC press release, 22 May 2006 www.nspcc.org.uk/whatwedo/mediacentre/pressreleases/22_may_2006_unwanted_sexual_experiences_wdn33559.htmland girls) are increasingly being pressuredinto appearing sexually available, and thatthis pressure is having a negative impacton both attitudes and behaviours. Duringthe public consultations held by theHome Office in spring 2009, many parentsexpressed concern about the pressure onteenagers – and even younger children– to appear sexually available and aboutthe sexualisation of young people and itspossible links to violence.Views expressed in recent surveys suggestthat violence against women and girlsis becoming increasingly ‘normalised’. 64According to a UK opinion poll carriedout in February 2009 65 16 per cent ofpeople think it is sometimes acceptablefor a man to slap his partner if she nagshim, while 20 per cent believe that it isOK under certain circumstances to hit awomen if she is wearing revealing or sexyclothing. As stated above, the NSPCC/Bristol University study 66 found thatexperiences of sexual abuse and violencewithin relationships were commonplaceamong teenage girls.The internationalcontextThe issue of sexualisation is raised in anumber of international laws, protocolsand initiatives, including the Conventionon the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW)(1979), the Beijing Platform for Action(BpfA) (1995), and the Palermo Protocol(2000).CEDAW calls on all signatory statesto take decisive action to tackle theobjectification of women and girls. Article5 requires that measures are put in placeto modify the social and cultural patterns64Barter, McCarry, Berridge and Evans (2009)65www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/violenceagainst-women-poll?view=Binary66Barter, McCarry, Berridge and Evans (2009)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewof men and women with a view toeliminating prejudices and practices basedon the idea of the inferiority or superiorityof either sex and/or on stereotyped rolesfor men and women. CEDAW also statesthat the sexual objectification of womenplays a role in maintaining inequalitybetween the sexes, and has repeatedlyidentified links between the portrayalof women as sex objects by the mediaand the sex industry and attitudes thatunderpin violence and discriminationagainst women.Strategic Objective J2 of the BeijingPlatform for Action calls for all states totackle unbalanced portrayals and theprojection of negative and degradingimages of women in the media. Article 9of the Palermo Protocol requires statesto discourage the demand that fostersall forms of exploitation (particularly ofwomen and children) which may leadto trafficking.The American Psychological Association(APA) Taskforce’s report on theSexualisation of Girls, published in 2007,explores how sexualisation is affectingyoung girls cognitively and emotionally,and impacting on their ability to developa healthy sexual self-image. 67 In 2008, theStanding Committee on Environment,Communications and the Arts for theAustralian Senate published its reporton the Sexualisation of children in thecontemporary media. 68More recently, a French parliamentarycampaign, spearheaded by Valérie BoyerMP, has called for all digitally enhancedphotographs to be printed with anattached health warning. Similarly, theReal Women campaign, led by UK MPJo Swinson, aims to encourage thepublic to challenge and complain aboutmisleading or untruthful advertising,including adverts featuring airbrushedimages, to the relevant authorities.Finally, a report on sexualised goods aimedat children was recently undertaken by theScottish Government.67APA (2007)68Australian Parliament, Standing Committee onEnvironment, Communications and the Arts(2008)21

Sexualisation of Young People Review4. What is sexualisation andwhy does it matter?“It is important to analyse culturalrepresentations of gender roles, sexuality andrelationships and ask what specific valuesare being promoted and if these are having anegative impact on child development. Keyquestions include the impact on children... ofstereotyped images of passivity and sexualobjectification... the long term impacts ofearly exposure to adult sexual themes andthe ways in which cultural exposure impactson parents’ roles in protecting and educatingchildren around sexuality in a developmentallyappropriate way.” 69IntroductionThe world is saturated by more imagestoday than at any other time in ourmodern history. Behind each of thoseimages lies a message about expectations,values and ideals. Images present andperpetuate a world where women arerevered – and rewarded – for theirphysical attributes and can put pressureon both girls and boys to emulatepolarized gender stereotypes from ayounger and younger age. It is testament6970to the extent to which such stereotypeshave become ‘normalised’ that to objectis often to be accused of lacking a senseof humour and proportion. As oneyoung teenager told me, “Girls call eachother names like ho and slag but its notalways serious, sometimes it’s just for fun,just a way to tease each other or evenas a compliment to tell a friend that shelooks hot or sexy”. 702269Newman, The Psychological and Developmental Impact of Sexualisation on Children.Quoted inTankard Reist (2010)70Evidence provided in a focus group, held as part of the Review (2009)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewIntroduction (cont.)Attitudes thought to have beeneradicated by the gender equalitymovement have somehow becomeacceptable again. Suddenly, it seems, it’sOK to call a woman a ‘bird’ or to haveher posing semi-naked on the cover of amainstream magazine, suddenly it’s cuteand funny for little girls to sing along tomisogynistic lyrics of songs, as long aslong as it’s done for the sake of a bit ofsimple harmless fun.However, many researchers, clinicians andeducators agree that the ramificationsof this kind of ‘fun’ are far from harmless.The evidence collected in this reportsuggests these developments are havinga profound impact, particularly ongirls and young women. Children andadolescents are highly susceptible to theimages and messages they see and heararound them particularly when, as isincreasingly the case, they are accessingthose images and messages alone.The following chapter examines thevarious ways in which sexualisationcan be defined and how it differs fromhealthy sexual development. It then goeson to examine how children and youngpeople develop, providing an overviewof some of the key theories of learningand development. Finally, it looks at howthose theories operate in practice; thatis, at how and why sexualisation maybe having an impact on children andyoung people.What is sexualisation?“...in the current environment, teen girlsare encouraged to look sexy, yet theyknow little about what it means to besexual, to have sexual desires and tomake rational and responsible decisionsabout pleasure and risk within intimaterelationships that acknowledge theirown desires.” 71Healthy sexuality is an importantcomponent of both physical and mentalhealth. When based on mutual respectbetween consenting partners, sex fostersintimacy, bonding and shared pleasure. 72Sexualisation, by contrast, is the impositionof adult sexuality on to children and youngpeople before they are capable of dealingwith it, mentally, emotionally or physically.It does not apply to self-motivatedsexual play, nor to the dissemination ofage‐appropriate material about sexuality.We should be careful that we do not71Tolman (2002)72Satcher (2001)indiscriminately apply the notion ofsexualisation so that any expression ofsexuality by children is seen as wrong orproblematic.The idea that sexualisation is increasinglyprevalent throughout our culture hasbeen gaining momentum since the late1990s and is now regularly discussedby academics and researchers. Theconsensus seems to be that the mostobvious manifestation, the disseminationof sexualised visual imagery, whileimportant in its own right, is part of awider phenomenon: the emergence inthe UK of a ‘pornified’ culture 73 and theencroaching of pornography into manyspheres of everyday life. 74 Althoughsome 75 interpret this as a sign of culturalmaturity and of the democratisation ofthe visual field, a more widely held view 7673Paul (2005)74McNair (2002)75McNair (2002)76McNair (2002); Paul (2005)23

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewis that the ‘sexualisation of culture’ 77 is asign of cultural degradation. 78 To enterinto this debate is beyond our remit;rather, our concern is to map out, throughclear analysis of the empirical researchliterature, the possible links between thesexualisation of culture and gendered andsexualised violence.Broadly, those academics who acceptthe phenomenon of sexualisationapproach it in two ways. On the onehand, so-called ‘mainstream sexualisation’describes the democratisation of sexand sexuality and the breaking down ofbinary oppositions (for example, male/female or heterosexual/homosexual). Onthe other, there is the commercialisationof sexuality which may well involve theappropriation of feminist terminologysuch as ‘empowerment’, ‘equality’ and ‘girlpower’. Arguably, this serves to reinforcethe dominant male gaze, by ensuring thatfemale sexual expression only gains validityunder the surveillance of men; somethingthat may be leading to increases insexualised violence among young people. 79Understanding the currentphenomenon of sexualisationThe term ‘sexualisation’ is used to describea number of trends in the production andconsumption of contemporary culture; thecommon denominator is the use of sexualattributes as a measure of a person’svalue and worth. Although sexualisedimages have featured in advertising andcommunications since mass media firstemerged, the current phenomenon ofsexualisation differs from what has gonebefore in three important regards.First, the volume of sexualised imagesand the extent to which they impinge oneveryday life are significantly greater thanthey were as recently as two decades ago.Public spaces are saturated with sexualisedimages and messages. 80 As a result, theyare visible to everyone, including childrenand young people who may not havethe maturity to rationalise and put whatthey are seeing into context. At the sametime, these images and messages are alsobecoming more explicit. Increasingly, itseems, there is a blurring between the‘mainstream’ media, whether in the formof billboard posters, magazine covers,music videos, fashion shoots or film trailers,and the world of pornography.Second, because of the proliferation ofvisual images, ‘social classifiers’ such asgender, class, race and age are being usedto present exaggerated constructions offemininity and masculinity. The resultingcaricatures – the big-breasted blondebimbo, the ‘dirty old man’ – are definedsolely by their sexual attributes, attitudesor behaviours. 81 In the case of the blondebimbo, too, there is a strong link betweenapparent sexually availability and validation;the ‘right’ physical attributes and thewillingness to submit to male desires are a‘passport’ to acceptance, money and fame.Third, children are increasingly beingportrayed in an ‘adultified’ way while,conversely, adult women are beinginfantilised. 82 This leads to a blurring ofthe lines between sexual maturity andimmaturity. This is having the effect ofsexualising girlhood and legitimising thenotion that children can be related to assexual objects.2477Gill (2009); Zurbriggen et al. (2007); McNair(2002); Paul (2005); Rush and La Nauze (2006)78Hitchens (2002); Paul (2005)79Barter, McCarry, Berridge and Evans (2009)80McNair (2002)81Paasonen (2007)82Evidence provided to the review byDr K. Sarikakis (2009)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThe APA definition ofsexualisationIn 2007, the American PsychologicalAssociation (APA) carried out anextensive review of the impact ofsexualisation on young girls. 83 The APA’staskforce provides the following definitionof sexualisation as occurring when:• a person’s value comes onlyfrom his or her sexual appeal orbehaviour, to the exclusion of othercharacteristics;• a person is held to a standard thatequates physical attractiveness withbeing sexy;• a person is sexually objectified– that is, made into a thing forothers’ sexual use, rather than seenas a person with the capacity forindependent action and decisionmaking; and/or• sexuality is inappropriately imposedupon a person.The APA views sexualisation as acontinuum, with so-called ‘sexualisedevaluation’ (that is, looking at someonewith sexual intent) at one end and severesexual exploitation, such as sexual abuseor trafficking, at the other.This report takes the APA definition asits benchmark, since it accurately reflectsthe themes emerging from the evidencesessions held by the Home Office as partof the Together We Can End Violence AgainstWomen and Girls consultation. Briefly,these themes are that the sexualisationof children and the infantilisation of adultwomen is having a negative impact onyoung people’s body image and identityand making a significant contribution tothe demand for the sexual exploitationof women and children within the UK.We appreciate that academic debateover the precise theoretical interpretationof sexualisation is ongoing; however, our83Zurbriggen et al. (2007)objective here is to better understand theimpact sexualisation is having now and toidentify effective strategies for combatingits negative effects.Sexualisation, learningand developmentA number of factors shape the waychildren and young people respond to thesexualisation of culture. One of the mostobvious is the individual child’s age and levelof cognitive and emotional development –a Pussycat Dolls video, say, will mean verydifferent things to a three-year-old, an eightyear-oldand a 14-year-old.What is important to consider howeveris the cumulative effect that exposure tosexualised messages and images will alsohave over time. Throughout this report,we will argue that the ‘drip drip’ effectis an insidious but powerful mechanismby which the previously unthinkablebecomes widely acceptable, often withina relatively short space of time. To givejust one example, cosmetic surgeryhas moved from being predominantlymedical in nature to being the preserveof Hollywood stars to being an acceptedpart of mainstream culture (see page 58)within just a few years.Developments in technology play asignificant role, and while the internetprovides amazing learning opportunities,it also gives children easy access to ageinappropriatematerials, which they canaccess alone, without the input andmitigating influence of an adult who could,perhaps, help them to understand andcontextualise what they are seeing.As the learning and developmentaltheories outlined below demonstrate,there is a considerable body of evidenceto suggest that children do learnvicariously from what they see, and thatviewing inappropriate messages or imagescan have a detrimental effect.25

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewSocialisation theoriesSocial learning theory 84 is based on theprinciple that we learn by observingothers’ attitudes and behaviours and byseeing the outcomes of those behaviours.It also posits a reciprocal relationshipbetween cognitive, behavioural andenvironmental influences; that is, thatbehaviour influences environment as wellas the other way round.Gender socialisation theories such asgender schema theory 85 are especiallyrelevant to understanding how hypersexualised/hyper-masculinisedimages caninfluence thinking and form the basis forindividuals’ beliefs about how they shouldlook and behave. The central premise isthat children learn what it means to beeither male or female from prevailingcultural norms and are then either praised(and therefore reinforced) for adhering tothese norms or, conversely, punished forgoing against them.More recently, Bussey and Bandura havefocused on how children’s own cognitiveprocesses work alongside the socialisationprocess that begins to take effect atbirth. The argument is that, once theyunderstand what society expects of themwith regard to gender roles and standardsof behaviour, children start to internalisethose expectations and create their ownrules. They then, in effect, start to ‘police’themselves in line with these self-imposedstandards, adapting and monitoring theirown behaviour without the need forreassurance and reinforcement fromoutside. 86Cognitive theoriesCognitive theories such as schema theoryand cognitive information processingtheory hold that social behaviour iscontrolled by ‘cognitive scripts’; essentially,learned patterns of behaviour thatindividuals can use to control socialinteraction. As in social learning theory,children learn by observing how othersbehave, encoding these messages andusing them to ‘script’ their own behaviour.For example, the combination of seeinghow other people behave and exposure to,say, certain adverts and/or TV programmescould lead a child to conclude that, ‘Forpeople to like me, I need to look pretty’or ‘Being a strong boy means playingrough’. These conclusions will thendictate how they interact with others, theexpectations they impose on themselvesand others, and how they subjectivelyassess and ascribe meaning to the worldaround them. Cognitive scripts can berehearsed (and reinforced) throughfantasy and play, ready to be acted outwhen the trigger that first prompted theencoding occurs again. 87Cognitive theories also cover beliefsthat operate at an unconscious level,for example subconscious associationsbetween beauty and thinness. 88 A recentstudy into how cognitive associationsare established uncovered a disturbingmanifestation of this phenomenon: afterseeing sexually explicit content featuringactors who appeared to be under-age,viewers were more likely to associate sexand sexuality with non-sexual depictionsof minors. 89Understanding the effects of unconsciousprocessing is particularly relevantconsidering how so many of the messagesthat children have to contend withactually target their emotions at anunconscious level. Various studies in thefields of psychology and neurosciencehave shown that it is often ones ‘emotionalinstinct’ that influences decision makingrather than cognitive reasoning. A good2684First articulated by Bandura (1971)85Bem (1981)86Bussey and Bandura (1999)87Huesmann (1998)88Ahern, Bennett and Hetherington (2008)89Paul and Linz (2008)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewexample is a recent study that found thatusing a celebrity voice to sell a productcould make that product more desirablebut only if the voice wasn’t specificallyrecognised; 90 the point being that ifpeople can recognise a voice, they canbe consciously cynical about whetherthey choose to believe the paid celebrityendorsement or not. However, if the voiceis only recognisable to the subconscious,then the cognitive filters one could intheory use to moderate the messages arecompletely bypassed. 91This sheds light on children’s emotionaland cognitive development. So, forexample, when a message is linked topositive, desirable feelings or images,it gains an emotional appeal that isindependent of rational reasoning. 92Significantly, the onset of puberty isassociated with increased awareness ofand responsiveness to rewarding stimuli.So brands and concepts with the ‘coolfactor’ hold out the promise of peeracceptance, thus making them particularlyattractive to teenagers. 93Cultural theoriesIndividuals develop and ascribe beliefs andmeanings to themselves and the worldaround them within a specific culturalcontext. Cultivation theory states thatindividual perceptions and beliefs areshaped by ‘socialising’ influences such asthe media. 94 In effect, media channelsact as ‘cultural advertisements’, tellingconsumers what to focus on, what tovalue and how to value it.Culture also dictates what is seen as‘acceptable’. Cultural spillover theory 95argues that when behaviours are acceptedin one aspect of life, they becomelegitimised and therefore acceptable inother areas, without the need for peopleto give their direct, explicit support. Forexample, researchers have suggested thatthe more a society legitimises the useof force to attain ends for which thereis widespread social approval (such astackling crime or deploying military force),the more the use of force becomeslegitimised in other domains such aspersonal relationships. 96 It seems logical toassume that the same principle of spillovermay operate with regard to sexualisation,and that the portrayal of women andgirls in magazines and on billboards assexualised objects will lead to their beingobjectified elsewhere.Objectification theoriesObjectification occurs when anindividual is treated not as a personbut as a collection of body parts valuedpredominantly for its use by others. 97Objectification theory 98 cites the powerfulrole of visual media (including mainstreamfilms, magazines, advertising and TV) indisseminating images that focus on bodiesand body parts which implicitly encouragethe viewer to adopt a ‘sexualised gaze’.Due to the proliferation of such images,theorists argue, sexual objectification hasnow effectively permeated our culture. 99Moreover, this objectifying perspectiveis becoming internalised, with girls andwomen increasingly viewing themselvesand their bodies from a detached, thirdpersonviewpoint: ‘How do others seeme?’, rather than ‘How do I feel?’ 10090Forehand and Perkins (2005)91Berridge and Winkelman (2003)92Mayo and Nairn (2009)93Steinberg (2008)94Gerbner et al. (1994)95Baron, Straus et al. (1988)96Baron, Straus et al. (1988)97Fredrickson and Roberts (1997)98Fredrickson and Roberts (1997)99APA (2007); Tankard-Reist (2010); AustralianParliament (2008)100Fredrickson and Roberts (1997)27

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThere are three main aspects to thisphenomenon. First, it leads to bodysurveillance, or the constant monitoringof personal appearance. Second, thismonitoring can result in body shame,where an individual feels that their physicalappearance fails to meet the standardsthey have set for themselves based onidealised media images and, moreover,that they are a ‘bad person’ as a result. 101Body shame is strongly linked with bodydissatisfaction, a recognised risk factor forpoor self-esteem, depression and eatingdisorders. 102 Third, an individual who seesthemselves as a sexualised object is morelikely to believe that they should controltheir appearance and that, with hard workand effort, they can reach the (largelyunattainable) standards prescribed bythe media. 103Age and cognitive abilityA meta-analysis of 25 years of researchinto the effects of media exposureshows clear links both between age andprocessing ability and between mediaexposure, attitudes and, by extension,behaviour. The media is a source oflearning. 104 In fact it has been suggestedthat the media acts as a kind of ‘superpeer’ 105 replacing messages from parentsor educators and gaining credibility in theminds of young people by assuming anauthority of ‘coolness’.Of course, some children and youngpeople are highly media-savvy and wellable to negotiate media content. 106However, there is a large body of researchfrom developmental psychologistsattesting to the fact that young children donot have the cognitive skills to cope withpersuasive media messages. 107 The APAfound that children are vulnerable tomedia messages because ‘they do notcomprehend commercial messages in thesame way as do more mature audiencesand hence are uniquely susceptible toadvertising influence.’ 108 One commentatorhas likened exposing children toadvertising to ‘sending them to the beachwithout sunscreen’. 109Children’s ability to interpret messagesis directly linked to their ability tounderstand abstract concepts. No matterhow sophisticated a six-year-old is, theysimply do not have the abstract cognitiveunderstanding needed to assimilateinformation from advertisers and themedia in the way that an older teenageror adult can. 110 Yet, as we have alreadysuggested, all age groups are increasinglybeing exposed to the same images andmessaging.Children may also believe that they haveunderstood a message when they havenot. In fact, even as children get olderthey are still susceptible to the hiddenadvertising and media messages thattarget them. As Mayo and Nairn put it, ‘thestimuli which kids don’t really notice andwhich create emotional associations arethe ones that influence them in the mostpowerful ways’. 111 This needs to be takeninto account when studying how children28101McKinley (1999)102Moradi et al. (2005); Polivy and Herman (2002);Tolman, Impett, Tracy, and Michael (2006)103Heinberg and Thompson (1996)104Emmers-Sommer and Allen (1999)105Levin and Kilbourne (2008). Quoted in Coy(2009)106Buckingham and Bragg (2004)107Mayo and Nairn (2009)108Kunkel, Wilcox, Cantor, Palmer,Linn and Dorwick (2004)109Cooper (2004)110Mayo and Nairn (2009)111Mayo and Nairn (2009)

Sexualisation of Young People Revieware affected by media content, sincealthough they may believe and say thatthey understand specific messages theirbehaviours often indicate otherwise.A recent study from Western Australiaexamined how interactive advertisementgames (‘advergames’) on a breakfastcereal site influenced children’s attitudes. 112The children were split into two groups:those that played the game and those thatdid not. When questioned both groupsmade it clear that they believed that fruitwas healthier than the fruity cereal inthe advergame they were playing, so thegame did not override the healthy eatingmessages they had been taught – or sothey told the researchers. However, whenit came time to make a choice betweenthe sugary cereal and other kinds offood, it seems that the advergame hada huge influence with 54% of the groupwho had played the game making theless healthy food choice as opposed toonly 32% in the other group. Advergameswork by making implicit associationsbetween the product and the pleasurederived from playing the game. This iswhat makes certain media or advertisingmessages so powerful, they can changechildren’s behaviour even though they donot believe that their minds have beenchanged at all.All of this suggests that exposing childrento images and messages that they are notyet equipped to deal with may well have anegative impact. It also suggests that whilechildren themselves may believe that theycan understand and contextualise, say, aPlayboy logo on a pencil case or an attackon a prostitute in a video game, suchencounters may be having a profoundimpact on attitudes and behaviour at anunconscious level.There is evidence to suggest thatunconscious emotional connections aremuch more enduring than cognitive112Mallinckrodt and Miserski (2007)conscious ones. Several studies haveunderscored the fact that it is notwhat young people say to a group ofresearchers (or to themselves for thatmatter) that influences behavioural choicesbut rather the associations betweenbehaviours and the ‘aspirational’ constructspromoting them. 113It is important to acknowledge that theway that young people internalise mediaand advertising messages is complex:young people’s attitudes are often basedon their subconscious feelings, whichcan be affected by ‘subtle emotionalappeals’ that are not well controlled byconscious reasoning. In addition, in caseswhere young people have not developedadvertising literacy skills, it is then thatconscious learning is often dominated byunconscious learning. 114Even where images and messages arebeing consciously absorbed, withoutguidance from a trusted adult, childrenand young people may be unable tounderstand and contextualise violentor pornographic images or content andassume that they are appropriate modelsfor behaviour and an accurate reflectionof how the world works. So, for example,exposure to violent sexual images couldlead impressionable young men to assumethat women want to be forced into sex,which has serious implications for genderequality in sex and relationships. 115Children with learning disabilities may findit particularly difficult to moderate or filterout unhealthy images or constructs. SaraDelaney, team manager of the SexuallyHarmful Behaviour Team in Birmingham,speaking during the review’s evidencesessions, pointed out that there is alack of guidance generally on discussingsex and relationships with children that113Dal Cin, Gibson, Zanna, Shumate, Fong andBargh (2002)114Mayo and Nairn (2009)115Emmers-Sommer and Allen (1999)29

Sexualisation of Young People Review30have learning disabilities. She indicatedthat around 40 per cent of the childrenassessed and treated in her unit havesome form of learning disability andthat the vast majority of these childrenare developing their sexual scripts frompornography. She also pointed to a lackof awareness of sexual norms and anincrease in inappropriate sexual touchingin schools. 116Cultural differenceCultural, religious, and class backgroundswill influence the family’s role in mediatingsexualised media content as well as whatis deemed as appropriate and acceptable.There is a need for more research intohow social location affects young people’sability to cope with sexualised content, 117and how schools in particular might helpto mediate sexualised and violent mediacontent and provide tools to supportyoung people. 118What we do know, however, is thatsexualisation occurs across all cultures andall social classes, although the channelsmay vary. Sexualised or degrading imagesof black women are commonplace inhip-hop videos, for example, while fashionadvertising is more likely to objectify whitewomen. The psychological ramifications ofself-objectification such as eating disordersand plastic surgery (see pages 58–60) alsotranscend race and class barriers. 119InternalisationThere are several theories that attemptto explain the link between exposureto idealised media images and body116Evidence provided to the review bySara Delaney (2010)117Buckingham and Bragg (2004)118Thornburgh and Lin (2002)119Abrams and Stormer (2002); Atlas, Smith,Hohlstein, McCarthy and Kroll (2002); Barryand Grilo (2002); Goodman (2002); Hesse-Biber, Leavy et al. (2006); Kolodny (2004)dissatisfaction. While it has been suggestedthat exposure simply exacerbates existingissues and that people with a negativebody image are more likely to seek out‘thin’ images, 120 there is neverthelessa significant correlation between theinternalisation of the ‘thin ideal’, mediapressure and body dissatisfaction. 121‘Internalisation’ describes the processby which an individual ‘buys in’ to socialnorms and turns them into guidingprinciples that inform their behaviour anddecisions. 122Internalisation has been shown to be thebiggest predictor of body dissatisfaction ingirls 123 although other factors – includingcultural pressure, individual differences inbody mass and lack of social support –also play a significant part. 124For boys, social pressure is the main causeof body image disturbance. 125 Parentalmessages are the strongest influenceon body image in boys and young men,while parents, the media and, to a lesserextent, the influence of male peers arethe strongest predictors of body changestrategies. 126 For boys, messages are likelyto centre around ideas of physical strengthand dominant, controlling behaviour.Internalisation is also a powerful meansby which the sexual norms and scriptspromulgated by pornography becomenormalised and help to shape youngpeople’s views about intimacy and sexualrelationships. 127 Boys can be made tofeel that treating girls as sex objects and/or behaving in an aggressive manner120Hill (2006)121Cusumano and Thompson (2001)122Thompson et al. (2004)123Stice and Bearman (2001)124Stice and Whitenton (2002)125Cash (2002); Ricciardelli and McCabe (2001);Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe and Tantleff-Dunn(1999)126Stanford and McCabe (2005)127Allen (2004)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewis the key to proving their manliness;beliefs which can be exacerbated by alack of suitable role models. 128 Duringthe evidence hearing sessions HollyElsdon-Smithers from the White RibbonCampaign noted that one of the issuesthat constantly arises in her work with129boys in schools is the lack of healthy malerole models. She noted that the ‘socialscripts’ given to boys once again centrearound male dominance and control, withboys feeling that they have to prove theirmanliness by relating to girls either assexual objects or in an aggressive manner.ConclusionYoung children have a natural, healthyinterest in their sexuality. But whentheir developing sexuality is mouldedto fit adult sexual stereotypes, this cancompromise that healthy developmentalprocess. Children need time and space todevelop their own understanding, ratherthan being presented with constructsthat they may not be emotionally orcognitively ready to deal with.Much of the evidence suggests thatinstead of putting children and youngpeople in control of their sexuality, weare in danger of isolating them from italtogether. And by doing so, creating asituation where young people are soused to ‘packaging’ themselves for others’consumption that they begin relating tothemselves in the third person, wherethey become estranged from their ownbodies.Wanting to be attractive, wanting tobe desired is natural. But it seems thatincreasingly young women’s dominantdesire is to be desired. And this need isoften to the detriment of other hopesand aspirations. This is illustrated by aquote taken from a recent BBCdocumentary on glamour modellingwhere a young aspiring glamourmodel said:“It’s so nice to get your hair and yourmake up done then for someone toshout you look fantastic, you lookgorgeous. It’s a complete confidenceboost, an ego boost. I think everyoneshould do it. Everyone should havea glamour shoot done just forthemselves” 129This young woman’s self esteem ispredicated on her appearance beingapproved of by men and her confidenceboosted by fulfilling a superficial, aestheticideal. Her point is that self-confidencecan be achieved by conforming tocertain beauty standards – and ofcourse such conformity is rewarded inindustries that trade on and commodifyfemale sexuality.Children and young people are not onlybeing exposed to an increasing numberof hyper-sexualised images; they are alsobeing sold the idea that girls should look‘hot’, regardless of their age. As such, theyare facing pressures that children in thepast simply didn’t have to face.128Evidence provided to the Review by HollyElsdon-Smithers, White Ribbon Campaign UK(2010)129Quoted in Coy and Garner (in press)31

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewConclusion (cont.)Children’s ability to understand andassimilate information develops overtime. Given the proliferation andaccessibility of sexualised images, it isalmost inevitable that children will comeinto contact with content they’re notready to understand. Not only can thisbe upsetting and disruptive, it can alsolead them to make assumptions aboutwhat’s appropriate that could leadthem into potentially dangerous anddamaging situations.For adolescents, untrammelled accessto sexualised images at a time whenthey are forming their own identity andcoming to terms with their emergingsexuality makes for a potent mix. Forany child, the pressure is huge. But whatabout those children who don’t fit the’norm’? Those who’re gay? Those whoare disabled or come from a minorityethnic background? The ideal for femalebeauty is not only narrow andunrealistic, it is also racially biased. Ourseeming obsession with the monolithicideals of gender and beauty leaves suchlittle room for manoeuvre that we are indanger of ostracising and pathologisingthe vast majority of children that don’tconform to that ideal.Young people need to be allowed todevelop and grow in surroundings wheretheir self-esteem is not predicated ontheir ability to fulfil the hyper-sexy orhyper-masculine ideal, but where theyare admired for their individual talentsand abilities. At a time when the visualincreasingly takes precedence, we are notonly teaching our children that looks areall that matters, we are also prescribingan increasingly narrow and limitedphysical ideal that is, for most of them,virtually impossible to achieve.32

Sexualisation of Young People Review5. Sexualised content and themainstreaming of pornography“With all the unregulated pornography availableonline it feels like we’re tending a small partof one corner of the garden while a jungle ofexploitative imagery grows around us.”Peter Johnson, Head of Policy, British Board of Film Classification 130130IntroductionAdvertising doesn’t just sell products;it sells aspirations and identities.The proliferation and accessibility ofadvertising images and messages make itincreasingly difficult to target them at theappropriate audience. With the advent ofmobile internet, it is almost impossible toguarantee that messages are only beingseen by the age group for which theyare intended. There is no ‘watershed’ onthe internet, and many adverts are sentindiscriminately to mobile phones ande-mail addresses. A child with a mobilephone literally has access to pornographyin their pocket.With proliferation and accessibility comenormalisation. From the café culture oflap dancing clubs, to push up bras for8-year-olds, we’ve reached a pointwhere it’s seemingly acceptable to usephotographs of barely clad actressesand models, along with sexually explicitstrap lines, on the covers of mainstreammagazines and stock them alongside thecomics in high street newsagents. Highstreet stores sell video games where theplayer can beat up prostitutes with batsand steal from them in order to facilitategame progression. The message is clear– young girls should do whatever it takesto be desired. For boys the message isjust as clear: be hyper-masculine andrelate to girls as objects. It’s no surprisetherefore that when researchersexamine the content of young girls’ webpages they find young teens are postingsexually explicit images of themselves onsocial networking sites, and self-regulatingeach other with sexist, derogatory anddemeaning language.130Evidence provided to the Review byPeter Johnson, British Board of FilmClassification (2009)33

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewIntroduction (cont.)As images that would have been foundshocking just a few years ago floodthe mainstream, so the boundariesget pushed back further. We’re seeingadverts that reference gang rape andadverts where women are reducedto dismembered body parts. In factthe influences of the iconic visualconstructs of porn are contributing tothe emergence of a caricature of whatit means to be a woman. Being beautiful,being attractive, being ‘sexy’ is no longerabout individuality and the characteristicsthat make a person unique, it’s aboutticking off items on a checklist: big breasts,big lips, fake tan, fake hair, fake nails – and,of course, youth.The notion that all young womenwho are socialised into believing thattheir worth lies in their sexuality andappearance should have the ‘agency’ tostand up to these images is naïve. Thisassumes that: firstly, all these messagesare assimilated on a conscious levelso can easily be challenged; secondly,that all young women are afforded theopportunity to moderate these messagesthrough healthy parental and peerrelationships; thirdly, that their own selfesteemis resilient enough to allow themto question and stand up to prevailingnorms; and finally, that their education hasafforded them the kind of media literacythat allows them to ‘filter out’ unhealthymessages. The fact is that many youngpeople don’t have these opportunitiesand, as such, are vulnerable to themessages both overt and covert that arepropagated in the world around them.With a tendency to ‘adultify’children and ‘infantilise’ women, thelines where childhood ends andadulthood begins are becomingincreasingly blurred. Girls who haven’teven developed secondary sexcharacteristics are posed to look overtlysexy, while adult women are posed tolook submissive and child-like ratherthan empowered and in control. It’s nosurprise therefore that for young femaleactors and musicians, taking their clothesoff has become a rite of passage, a wayof showing the world that they’re ‘allgrown up now’. While boys are ‘allowed’to enter adulthood without needingto advertise their sexual availability ordesirability, they are nevertheless exposedto messages that reinforce the idea thatthey should be primarily motivated bysex and that male desire is somethingthat cannot be controlled. This is havingan impact both on boys’ attitudes to theirown bodies and on their attitudes to andbehaviour towards girls.The following section provides anoverview of how the media andadvertisers are promoting sexualisedimages and messages and explores therole of the internet. It also looks at therole of parents in providing supportto help their children understand andcontextualise what they see and hear.It goes on to look at the various waysin which pornography has enteredthe mainstream, including throughthe internet and the proliferationof lapdancing clubs. Throughout,we consider the implications of thisexposure on children and young people’semotional and cognitive development.34

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewMagazines“A more sexualised media hasn’t beengreat for women. We’re still labelled.Can’t we just do what we like withour bodies? Labelling and stereotypesreinforce our inequality.”Focus group participant 131Young people consistently cite the mediaas an important source of informationon sexual issues. 132 In the US, the numberof magazines targeting the teen marketrose from five to 19 between 1990 and2000. 133 Nearly half of 8–18-year-olds saythey spend at least five minutes readinga magazine the previous day, with 22 percent spending at least 20 minutes. Onaverage, 8–18-year-olds spend 14 minutesa day reading magazines. 134A dominant trend seems to be theneed for girls to present themselves assexually desirable in order to attract maleattention. 135 Articles, cover lines, photosand adverts encourage girls and women tolook and dress in ways that will make themattractive to men: so-called ‘costuming forseduction’. 136 Both language and images aresexualised, 137 with repeated use of wordssuch as ‘hot’ and cute’ reinforcing theidea that these are the qualities to whichreaders should aspire.“Women’s magazines are a joke. Thereshould be more magazines that empowerwomen and focus on their rights, not justtheir appearance.”Focus group participant 138Conversely, the ‘lads mags’ targeted atyoung male readers typically featurehighly sexualised images of women thatblur the lines between pornography andmainstream media. At the same time,they promote an idea of male sexualityas based on power and aggression,depicting women as sex objects andincluding articles that feature strategies formanipulating women. 139“It’s depressing that in this era womenand young girls can go into mainstreamshops and be bombarded by highlysexualised images of naked youngwomen plastered over men’s magazines.Inside, readers’ girlfriends are encouragedto send in pictures of themselves topless.In the name of what? Freedom ofexpression? It’s a narrow and damagingversion of how young women shouldbehave with regards to their sexuality andtheir relationships with men.”Karen Bailey,Stella Project Co-ordinator 140131Women’s National Commission (2009)132Huston (1998); Buckingham and Bragg (2004);Donnerstein and Smith (2001); Greenfield(2004); Peter and Valkenburg (2007);Thornburgh and Lin (2002)133Teen Market Profile (2005) Quoted in APA(2007)134Roberts et al. (2005)135Carpenter (1998); Durham (1998); Garner,Sterk, and Adams (1998); McMahon (1990)136Duffy and Gotcher (1996)137Rush and La Nauze (2006)138Women’s National Commission (2009)139Taylor (2005)140Evidence provided to the review byKaren Bailey (2010)35

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewChildren in magazines are often dressedand posed in such a way as to drawattention to sexual features that they donot yet possess, while advice on hairstyles,cosmetics, clothing, diet, and exerciseattempt to remake even young readersas objects of male desire, 141 promotingpremature sexualisation. 142 Young girls areencouraged to see themselves as objectsthat must be sexually connected to a manin order to feel complete. 143 While thesefindings are mainly drawn from the UnitedStates, UK magazines feature very similarthemes and content.Airbrushing: portrayingimages of ‘unattainableperfection’In a recent study of over 1,000 womencarried out by consumer cosmeticscompany Dove, 144 more than two-thirds ofwomen stated that they lacked confidenceabout their bodies as a result of viewingdigitally altered images of models, whilea fifth said they felt less confident intheir everyday lives. A quarter of thosequestioned said that images used inadvertising made them feel self-consciousabout their appearance. Nearly all thewomen surveyed – 96 per cent – saidthey would like advertisers to be honestabout the extent to which they wereairbrushing or digitally manipulating images.This survey backs the findings of a groupof experts and researchers from the UK,USA, Australia, Ireland and a number ofother countries. The group recently senta letter to the Advertising StandardsAuthority in response to the Authority’scall for more evidence on the impact ofadvertising on body image. 145 Citing over100 studies into the effects of idealisedmedia images on women and girls andfurther studies documenting the impactof the muscular ideal on young men andboys, the group reached the followingconclusions:• poor body image is linked toeating disorders, cosmetic surgery,extreme exercising, unhealthymuscle-enhancing activity,depression, anxiety and low selfesteem;• idealised media images have anegative effect on a significantmajority of adolescent girls andwomen, and this starts from anearly age;• advertising images of average-sizemodels are just as effective asimages of very thin women;• there is a lack of awareness aboutthe extent to which images arebeing altered; and• better media literacy can reduceboth the negative impacts ofexposure and the tendency tointernalise the thin ideal.36141Duffy and Gotcher (1996)142Rush and La Nauze (2006)143Garner et al. (1998)144news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Airbrushed-Pictures-Of-Models-Again-Blamed-For-Womens-Increasingly-Poor-Self-Esteem/Article/200911415471304?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15471304_Airbrushed_Pictures_Of_Models_Again_Blamed_For_Womens_Increasingly_Poor_Self-Esteem145The Impact of Media Images on Body Imageand Behaviours, Misc. (2009)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewIn France, a group of 50 MPs hasintroduced legislation calling for all digitallyenhanced images to be clearly marked.The bill had its first reading in the Frenchparliament in September.“We want to combat the stereotypicalimage that all women are young andslim. These photos can lead peopleto believe in a reality that does notactually exist and have a detrimentaleffect on adolescents. Many youngpeople, particularly girls, do not know thedifference between the virtual and reality,and can develop complexes from a veryyoung age.”Valérie Boyer, Member of Parliament 146AdvertisingSexualisation in advertising is not a newphenomenon. Content analyses of TVadverts stretching back to the 1970s showthat gender-stereotypical ideas and imagesare widely used. 147 Nevertheless, overthe past three decades there has been adramatic increase in the use of sexualisedimages in advertising. The overwhelmingmajority of these images feature women. 148For example, in a recent study of 72 beerand non-beer ads randomly selected fromprime-time sports and entertainmentprogramming, 75 per cent of the beer adsand 50 per cent of non-beer ads were feltto be ‘sexist’, 149 and featured women inobjectifying roles. 150146www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6214168/French-MPs-want-healthwarnings-on-airbrushed-photographs.html147Courtney and Whipple (1974); Furnhamand Voli (1989); Lovdal (1989); Rudman andBorgida (1995); Russo, Feller and DeLeon(1982)148Reichert et al. (1999)149Defined as sexual and limiting in gender role150Rouner, Slater and Domenech-Rodriquez(2003)There has also been a significant increase inthe amount of sexualised images of childrenin circulation. 151 Increasingly, young children inadverts are being dressed, made up andposed like sexy adult models; conversely,adult women are being infantilised. 152Theorists argue that this ‘age compression’, 153in blurring the boundaries betweenchildhood and adulthood, is enabling thevalues perpetuated by some marketers toencroach further and further into childhood.The Advertising Standards Authority(ASA) 154 recently ruled that an advert forAmerican Apparel clothing ‘could be seento sexualise a model who appeared to bea child’. The advert consisted of six photos,with the model gradually unzipping herhooded top further and further untilher nipple was exposed. She was styledwearing natural-looking make-up. Althoughthe model in question was actually 23, theASA stated that some of the shots madeher appear to be under 16.While adults may be equipped to understandwhy such images are inappropriate, it isimportant to remember that children andyoung people are often not.“Research establishes clearly that mostchildren under the age of approximatelyeight years do not comprehend thepersuasive intent of advertising. Suchchildren lack the capability to effectivelyevaluate commercial claims andappeals, and therefore tend to acceptthe information conveyed in advertisingas truthful, accurate, and unbiased.Consequently, children in this age rangeare uniquely vulnerable to commercialpersuasion.” 155151Rush and La Nauze (2006)152Rush and La Nauze (2006)153Lamb and Brown (2006). Quoted in Coy(2009)154www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_46886.htm155APA Task Force on Advertising and Children(2004)37

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewFurthermore, the sheer proliferationof such images leads to gradualdesensitisation; research carried outamong teenage girls found that theirobjections to sexualised images tended todecrease over time. 156157Taking steps to protectchildrenThe ASA’s remit requires it to have‘special concern for the protection ofchildren’ and the Agency has a numberof enforceable codes prohibiting, forexample, advertisers from targetingchildren with misleading adverts,adverts that put viewers underpressure to purchase, and any advertsthat could cause harm or distress.Other countries have adopted variousapproaches to restricting advertisingfor children. In Greece, toy advertsare banned on TV between 7am and10pm; Sweden bans all TV advertisingaimed at children under 12; whileNorway, Finland, and Denmark donot allow sponsorship of children’sprogrammes. The Broadcasting Codeof Canada severely restricts children’sadvertising and bans any adverts thatimply a product will make a childhappier or more popular. In 2004, theAPA’s Task Force on Advertising andChildren formally backed a proposalto restrict advertising to children agedeight or under in the US. The taskforce highlights that as adults respondto commercials by automaticallyapplying cognitive filters, which tellthem that the commercial intends topersuade them, they expect biasedinformation and interpret it accordingly.Children on the other hand lack thesecognitive filters. 157Marketing also encourages young girlsto present themselves in a sexual way.One tactic is to present characters thatchildren strongly identify with in a highlysexualised way. 158 Bratz dolls, for example,are targeted at four-to-eight-year-olds,yet most dolls in the range are heavilymade-up, some of which are dressed inminiskirts and fishnet stockings. Anothertactic is to market objects to young girlsthat are entirely appropriate on onelevel but which nevertheless send outdisturbing messages: putting the Playboybunny logo on a child’s pencil case is aprime example of how the line betweensexual immaturity and maturity can beblurred. Such blurring – which also occurswhen adult women are presented in aninfantilised way (for example, the recentPlayboy cover of a model in pig-tails,holding a teddy bear) – effectively suggeststhat it is acceptable to relate to childrenin a sexual way. 159 In his examinationof sexual portrayals of girls in fashionadvertising, Merskin (2004) puts it like this:“…the message from advertisers andthe mass media to girls (as eventualwomen) is they should always be sexuallyavailable, always have sex on their minds,be willing to be dominated and eventuallysexually aggressed against...” 160Although the bulk of the researchis currently focused on print and TVadvertising, it is arguably the case thatinternet advertising – which can beboth interactive and prolonged – has aneven more powerful effect on childrenand young people. That interactivity canencourage children to form strong bondswith brands.The basic economic concepts are alsodifferent. Whereas primary schoolchildren can understand the basic38156Survey carried out in New Zealand, Clark(2008)157APA Taskforce on Advertising and Children(2004)158Evidence provided to the review by the BritishBoard of Film Classification (2009)159Ringrose (2010)160Merskin (2004)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewprinciples regarding the exchange ofgoods for money, they are less likely tounderstand how a gaming website maybe subsidised by selling advertising space.Increasingly, new psychological researchis beginning to show that because of thisolder children are just as susceptible toadvertising messages as those in juniorschool. 161 Neuro-marketing studies haveshown that the reason behind this has todo with the way our brain is configured:the thinking part of our brain (the neocortex)responds to cues differentlyto the instinctive part of the brain (thelimbic system). Researchers suggest thatmany decisions are made based on ourinstincts rather than conscious reasoning.And since children’s and young people’srational responses are less developed thanthose of adults, they are therefore morevulnerable to media messages.Children’s clothing“The NSPCC’s position on this is thatby normalizing sexualised clothing andbehaviour, it opens up young girls to beingexploited.”Tom Narducci,senior consultant, NSPCC 162From push-up bras for pre-teens to highheeledshoes for four-year-olds, mediareports of age-inappropriate clothingbeing targeted at young children havebecome common place. Researchersindicate that marketers use clothes tosell identities to children especially girls,allowing a child, for example, to adopt a‘rock chic’ look one day or a ‘bo-ho hippy’look the next. 163 The notion of young girlsenjoying dress-up is nothing new. The vastmajority of little girls have at least oneprincess dress in their wardrobe, and whilethere is nothing wrong with role-playingwith clothes and enjoying fashion, whatis concerning is that many of the choicesnow available to young girls encouragethem to engage and experiment withthemes that they may not be cognitivelyor developmentally ready to engage with.If we accept that girls are to some extentexperimenting with their identities throughfashion then we need to consider theimpact on increasingly younger girls beingmarketed clothes designed to highlightsexual characteristics that they do notyet possess. By over-emphasizing theirsexuality through fashion it may make itharder for girls to value themselves forother aspects of their identity. In theirreport on the sexualisation of girls, theAPA makes the point that when girls aredressed in miniature versions of adultclothes, there is the danger that peoplewill project adult motives, responsibilityand agency on girls, and that this in turnmay have the impact of normalising thesexual abuse of children. 164161Mayo and Nairn (2009)162Narducci T., [http://www.kidglue.com/2010/02/11/parenting-site-campaignsagainst-sexualizing-young-girls/](2010)163Lamb and Brown (2006); Pollett and Hurwitz(2004)164APA (2007)39

Sexualisation of Young People Review40Corporate socialresponsibilityReports published in Australia 165and the US 166 have called for greatercorporate social responsibility andthere are signs that at least somemanufacturers are prepared to listento the concerns of those working tosafeguard children. In the UK, Tescoagreed to withdraw pole-dancing kitsfrom the toys and games section of itswebsite 167 following complaints fromparents. Toy manufacturer Hasbroshelved plans to produce a range ofdolls based on the pop music groupthe Pussycat Dolls, noted for theirrevealing clothes and sexy image. 168In autumn 2009, a group of largecompanies including Mars, Lego,Kelloggs and McDonalds, announcedthe launch of Digital Adwise, a setof online lessons aimed at teachingchildren about online content andhelping them to think more criticallyabout media messages. “Childrenand their parents need to betterunderstand how the internet works,not just as a platform but as a meansfor advertising,” said Nick Stringer, headof regulatory affairs at the InternetAdvertising Bureau. 169165166167168169165Rush and La Nauze (2006)166APA (2007)167Fernandez, Daily Mail, 24 October 2006168www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196943,00.html169Ramsay, ‘Brands back lessons about onlineadvertising for UK children’, MarketingMagazine, November 2009Television“By depicting violence against women,especially young women, with increasingfrequency, or as a trivial, even humorousmatter, the networks may be contributingto an atmosphere in which young peopleview aggression and violence againstwomen as normative, even acceptable.” 170The world as depicted on TV isdisproportionately male and itdisproportionately sexualises womenand girls. There is also a significant underrepresentationof women and girls innon-sexualised roles in films. In the 101highest earning family films between1990–2004 over 75% of characters weremale, 83% of narrators were male and 72%of speaking roles were male 171 Femaleson television are far more likely than theirmale counterparts to be provocativelydressed 172 ; sexual comments and remarksare commonplace, and are predominantlytargeted at women. 173 In an analysis of81 episodes of different prime-time USprogrammes, researchers observed thatwomen’s bodies were frequently objectifiedand that they were often subject toinsulting allusions to their sexuality and lackof intellect. An average episode featured 3.4examples of sexual harassment, of whichroughly two-thirds involved sexist or sexualcomments. Another analysis, this time ofworkplace-based sitcoms, found frequentcomments characterising women as sexualobjects and jokes about women’s sexualityand bodies. 174Violence against women on TV isincreasingly common. A US report foundthat depictions of violence against womenon TV had risen by 120 per cent since2004 while depictions of violence againstteenage girls rose by 400 per cent. Over170Parents Television Council (2009)171Kelly and Smith (2006)172Eaton (1997)173Ward (2003)174Grauerholz and King (1997)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewthe same period, violence occurringirrespective of gender increased by just2 per cent. In 19 per cent of depictedoffences, violence against women resultedin death. In the vast majority of cases (92per cent) the violence – or its graphicconsequences – was shown, rather thanimplied or described. 175Given the fact that the TV often actsas a ‘child minder’ for many families, itis imperative that parents are aware ofwhat constructs their children are beingexposed to – simple measures such asswitching the TV on and off to watchspecific shows or not allowing childrento have televisions in their bedroomshave been found to make a significantimprovement in terms of what childrenare exposed to and how they makesense of it. 176 Spending time to speak tochildren about what they have seen andhow it impacts them has been shown tobe one of the best ways to ensure thatthe messages they receive are moderatedand challenged.It is important to note that researchshows that children do question imagesand storylines based on sex on TV, yetsexualised imagery in advertising and TVhas become so ‘naturalised’ that childrentypically lack the ability for a cultural critiqueof sexism. Research illustrates that childrenabsorb the ‘male gaze’ and conform to apowerful ‘heterosexual logic’. 177However, there is evidence to suggestthat TV programmes can be a valuablesource of ‘sexual learning’, with materialfrom some programmes being used togenerate resources which have been usedto support the Personal, Social, Health andEconomic (PSHE) education and MediaStudies curricula in secondary schools. 178For example, the Channel 4 documentary,the Sex Education Show Vs Pornography,which explores the myths perpetuated bythe porn industry, has been used as a sexeducation tool in some schools.175www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/womeninperil/main.asp176Barr-Anderson, van den Berg, Neumark-Sztainer and Story (2008)177Buckingham and Bragg (2004)178Buckingham and Bragg (2004)41

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThe role of parentsParents are a powerful force in shapingtheir children’s attitudes to genderand sexuality. Girls’ interactions withtheir mothers will tend to inform theirown response to cultural messagesabout thinness and body ideals: 179there is a clear link between theextent to which mothers focus ontheir own thinness, their tendency tocriticise their daughters’ weight andthe likelihood of those girls developingan eating disorder. 180 Father’s attitudeshave a noticeable impact on thegender-typing of children’s activities andthe extent to which children conformto the norm. 181There are some key variations byethnic group. One US study 182 foundthat white mothers routinely engagedin ‘fat talk’ with their daughters,describing the girls as ‘... surroundedby excessive concerns over physicalappearance and talk of feeling fat.’Messages from fathers tended to becritical and often included a sexualelement, such as a reference to adaughter starting to develop breasts.By contrast, African-American girlswere getting much more positivefeedback from their parents. Whiledieting rates were similar to those forwhite girls, African-American girls hadhigher levels of body satisfaction andself-esteem and were less worriedabout their weight.Parents can also contribute to thesexualisation of their children in verydirect ways. For example, in the US,children’s beauty pageants are highprofile events. Although the numberof children actually taking part isrelatively small, coverage in news, TVprogrammes and advertising meansthat the phenomenon has entered themainstream. Increasingly, too, parentsare allowing and even encouraging theirchildren to undergo plastic surgery (seepage 58) as a means of ‘fixing’ poor bodyconfidence or low self-esteem.Conversely, parents also have a vital roleto play in supporting their children tocope with and contextualise sexualisedimages and messages. Researcherspoint to the damage that can resultwhen children lack the emotionalsophistication and psychologicaldevelopment to understand what theyare seeing and suggest that the solutionis for parents to play a more active rolein communicating with their childrenabout sexual matters. 183However, there are limits to whatparents can achieve alone. It isimperative that companies that promotethe premature sexualisation of childrenfor their own commercial interests actmore responsibly, and that companies,advertisers and media outlets areaware of and take steps to minimisethe negative impact that the images andmessages they promote are having onchildren and young people.179180181182183179Ogle and Damhorst (2004)180Hill, Weaver and Blundell (1990); Levine, Smolak, Moodey, Shuman and Hessen (1994)181McHale, Crouter and Tucker (1999)182Nichter (2000)42183Levin and Kilbourne (2008)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThe internet“My younger cousins, they’re all under theage of 11, and they’re now coming intoan age where the internet is all they’veever known. When we were young, wewere still doing all the [outdoor] activitiesand the internet wasn’t really around. Sowe’ve got balance. But maybe in five or10 years’ time that will change.” 1842009 marked a watershed for the internet:for the first time, companies spent moreon online than on TV advertising. Theinternet is now the UK’s single biggestadvertising medium, accounting for23.5 per cent of the total market. 185 Forchildren and young people, this meansmore and easier access to sexualisedmarketing imagery and messages, as wellas to many other forms of sexualisedonline content.Almost all (99 per cent) of 8-17-year-oldshave access to the internet, 186 split roughlyequally between girls and boys. 187 Since2008, the number of children with accessto the internet in their own bedroom hasgrown significantly, and now stands at 16per cent of 8–11-year-olds and 35 percent of those aged 12–15. In all, around athird of 8–11-year-olds and 60 per cent of12–15-year-olds say that they mostly usethe internet on their own. 188A quarter of internet users aged betweeneight and 11 have a profile on a socialnetworking site such as Bebo, MySpaceor Facebook. 189 While sites set age limits(typically 13 or 14), these are not generallyenforced. Social networking sites allow18417-year-old girl, quoted in Livingstone, Helsperand Bober (2005)185Internet Advertising Bureau www.iabuk.net/en/1/adspendgrows300909.mxs (accessedNovember 2009)186Ofcom Media Literacy Audit (2008)187Lenhart, Rainie and Lewis (2001); Roberts et al.(2005)188Ofcom (2009)189Ofcom (2008)children and young people to createonline identities. The fact that some, mainlygirls, choose to present themselves in asexualised way has attracted considerablepublic attention. 190 Interviews with14–16-year-olds whose online profiles‘raised issues around sexual representationand identity’ found that girls are ‘underparticular and constant threat of failing tomeet the pornified and hyper-sexualisedvisual ideals of “perfect femininity”online’. 191“Are we seeing a ‘disciplinary technologyof sexy’, an increasing compulsionfor young people to perform assexual objects online? The increasingnormalisation of pornography and sexualcommodification of girls’ bodies onlineleads to ‘real life’ anxieties, conflicts andviolence in their relationships at school.” 192As Jessica Ringrose, a senior lecturer ingender and education, indicated duringour evidence gathering sessions, “younggirls are presenting themselves as sexuallyactive and sexually available, and youngpeople are encouraged to subscribe tohetero-normative ideas of femininity andmasculinity.” 193Girls, for instance, report being underincreasing pressures to display themselvesin their ‘bra and knickers’ or bikinis online,whereas boys seek to display theirbodies in a hyper-masculine way, showingoff muscles, and posturing as powerfuland dominant. 194 Hyper-femininity andhyper-masculinity posit heterosexuality asthe norm, influencing attitudes towardshomosexuality in schools and beyond. 195Further, sexualised self-presentation could190Kornblum (2005)191Ringrose (2010)192Ringrose (2010)193Evidence provided to the Review by JessicaRingrose, Senior Lecturer in gender andeducation, IOE194Ringrose (2010)195Ringrose and Renold (2010)43

Sexualisation of Young People Review44also mean that young people are exposingthemselves to danger from further afield:recently, public attention has focused onuse of social networking sites such asMySpace and Facebook to disseminatesexualised material and sexually solicitunderage children and young people. 196The rise of online networking presentsconsiderable challenges for everyonecoming into contact with young people. 197It has been suggested that schools,for example, have yet to address theimplications of young people’s engagementwith social networking sites – activitywhich takes place away from school butwhich nevertheless has a profound impacton young people and the way they engagewith each other. 198 Similarly, parents andcarers must recognise that the internetis increasingly bringing the dynamics ofthe playground into the home. We needresources to ‘guide’ young people aroundnew technologies and social relationshipsmediated through new communicationtechnologies. 199Cyberbullying – where victims areharassed via the internet or mobilephone – is consistently estimated to affectaround a quarter of secondary-age youngpeople, 200 with some studies putting thefigure as high as 75 per cent. 201 Textingand instant messaging are particular areasof concern. 202 Research conducted bythe University of New Hampshire foundthat, while 15 per cent of young peoplesurveyed had experienced unwantedsexual solicitation online, only 4 per centwere targeted via their social networkingsite. Where harassment did occur, it was196For example, Slater and Tiggemann (2002)197Boyd (2008)198Ringrose (2009)199Boyd (2008)200Action for Children (2005); Li (2006); Smith(2005); Hinduja and Patchin (2007)201Juvonen and Gross (2008)202Noret and Rivers (2006); Smith et al. (2006)most likely to happen through instantmessaging and chat rooms. 203Social networking andchildren• 49 per cent of children aged 8–17have an online profile (mainly Bebo,MySpace, Facebook).• 59 per cent of 8–17-year-olds usesocial networking sites to make newfriends.• 16 per cent of parents don’t knowwhether their child’s profile is visibleto all.• 33 per cent of parents say they setno rules for their children’s use ofsocial networking sites.• 43 per cent of children say theirparents set no rules for use of socialnetworking sites. 204Children’s websites 204Many websites for children are perfectlysafe and have a high educational and socialvalue. However, some are undoubtedlyencouraging very young girls to presentthemselves as adult women and to focuson their physical appearance to theexclusion of all else.At www.missbimbo.com, girls and boysare encouraged to use plastic surgeryand extreme dieting to help their virtualcharacters achieve the ‘perfect figure’and compete with each other to create‘the coolest, richest and most famousbimbo in the world’. The site currently hasover two million registered ‘bimbos’. Atwww.my-minx.com, girls create avatars whohave ‘style off’ competitions with eachother, go clubbing to ‘pull’ men and takethe morning-after pill. Children of any agecan play as there is no robust method forchecking participants’ ages.203Ybarra and Mitchell (2008)204Ofcom (April 2008)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewMaybe these games are supposed to be‘ironic’ but the fact is that they normalisetopics ranging from cosmetic surgeryto marrying for money as appropriatesubject matter for child’s play. It is anotherpowerful indication of how the boundariesbetween what is seen as appropriate forchildren and what is the preserve of adultsis being blurred.Pornography“…men are still encouraged throughmost pornographic materials, to seewomen as objects and women arestill encouraged much of the time toconcentrate on their sexual allure ratherthan their imagination or pleasure.” 205Pornographic websites constitute around1.5% of all websites. 206 Pornhub, YouPornand RedTube are among the top 65 mostviewed websites in the UK. They also allowusers to upload their own material. Suchsites are based on the YouTube businessmodel and offer instant and free access tohardcore pornography with no effectiveaccess controls in place to preventchildren viewing the material.Each day, search engines deal with around68 million requests for pornographicmaterial – approximately a quarter of allsearches on the net. 207 This, combined withthe proliferation of sexualised images inonline advertising, suggests that bothpornography and sexualised images arebecoming more widely available and easilyaccessible.It is no longer a case of if a young personwill be exposed to pornography butwhen. A 2008 YouGov survey 208 of over1400 14–17-year-olds in the UK found205Walter (2010)206Zook, Report on the location of the internetadult industry. In: Jacobs, K., Janssen, M.,Pasquinelli, M. (Eds.) (2007)207Ropelato (2006)208Sex Education Survey (2008)that 27 per cent of boys were accessingpornography every week, with 5 per centviewing it every day. The survey also foundthat 58 per cent had viewed pornographyonline, on mobile phones, in magazines,in films or on TV. Another study, this timeof 9–19-year-olds, showed almost one ineight had visited pornographic websitesshowing violent images. 209Exposure to pornography can also happeninadvertently. Nearly 40 per cent of9–19-year-olds have accidentally seen apop-up advert for a pornographic site;36 per cent have ended up on one byaccident; 25 per cent have received pornjunk email; and 9 per cent have beensent pornographic images by someonethey know. 210 The YouGov survey showedthat nearly one in five had been sentpornography via email or their mobilephone without their consent. 211At the same time, there have beenchanges in the nature of pornographicmaterials. The modern trend in explicit‘hardcore’ and so-called ‘gonzo’ pornographyis to depict sexual activity free from anypretence of narrative or relationships, andto show participants (especially women)being pushed to the very limits of theirphysical capabilities, often in a group sexscenario. Many ‘hardcore’ works also playaround with notions of consent, youth,innocence, inappropriate relationships, painand violence in ways which range fromrelatively innocuous to extremely disturbing.A recent report by the AustralianResearch Centre in Sex, Health andSociety reviewed research carried out in12 countries on the use of pornography.It concluded that boys exposed topornographic material were more likely tosee sex as casual and were more inclinedto believe that there is nothing wrong withholding down and sexually harassing girls.209Livingstone and Bober et al. (2005)210Livingstone and Bober et al. (2005)211Sex Education Survey (2008)45

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThe study’s author, Michael Flood, said that“there is compelling evidence from aroundthe world that pornography has negativeeffects on individuals and communities.”The point was also made that pornographyshapes young people’s sexual knowledgebut does so by portraying sex inunrealistic ways. In particular, they notedthat most pornography is both callous andhostile in its depictions of women. 212Pornography andsexual behaviour“From a young age, boys are taught thatthey are entitled to consume women’sbodies and are also fed unrealisticexpectation of those bodies, sex andrelationships in general. At the same time,girls are encouraged to embrace this asliberating.”Sophie Taylor, Greater LondonDomestic Violence ProjectThere is strong evidence linkingconsumption of pornography with sexualbehaviour. In a study of 718 US highschool students from 47 different highschool classes, 213 29 per cent said thatpornography had influenced their sexualbehaviour. In a European study, 53 per centof young men reported that pornographyhad ‘inspired’ their sexual behaviour. 214Research illustrates that high consumptionis also linked to the propensity to have sexoutside a stable relationship. 215 A survey of471 Dutch teenagers aged 13–18 showedthat the more young people sought outonline porn, the more likely they wereto see sex as a purely physical function,devoid of empathy. The more realistic thematerial, the stronger this view became. 216Exposure to pornography also influencesbehaviour outside the sexual sphere.Recent research has suggested that youngpeople that display anti-social behaviourare more likely to have been exposedto pornography. They also report moreexposure, exposure at an earlier age, andmore extreme pornography use thantheir peers. 217Pornography is increasingly normalisingaggressive sexual behaviour, blurring thelines between consent, pleasure andviolence. 218 Research also indicates thatthe more explicitly violent the material,the more likely the viewer is to seewomen as sex objects. 219 Male ‘highpornography consumers’ are more likelythan low consumers to ‘act out’ behaviourlearned through watching pornography. 220This has worrying implications,particularly given the growing tendencyof pornographic films to feature violentstorylines (see page 45).Over time, young people are internalisingthe often violent and non-consensualmessages and images they see inpornography and coming to acceptthem as the norm. Pornography is alsonormalising what until very recentlywould have been seen as niche practicessuch as the removal of female public hair,giving a pre-pubescent appearance: 221a custom that is now permeatingmainstream culture.46212Flood (2009)213Hanson and Tyd´en (2005)214Tyd´en and Rogala (2004)215Hanson and Tyd´en (2005)216Peter and Valkenburg (2006)217Bjørnebekk (2003). Quoted in Flood (2009)218Hanson and Tyd´en (2005); Dines (2009)219Peter and Valkenburg (2006)220Hanson and Tyd´en (2005)221Dines (2008)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewAccording to social learning theory, whatis important is not necessarily the contentof the media itself but rather the implicitvalues that it represents, which providesthe potential for harm. As such, what isof importance here is not simply that achild sees two people engaged in sex, butmore to do with the nuances surroundinghow the couple relate to each other andthe attitudes this reinforces. As much ofthe pornographic material available todayincreasingly centres around genderedthemes of power and violence, then thisis what children will be responding to.Of course, as is the case with all media,effects on the viewer are mediated by theperceived realism of the material and anindividual’s engagement with it. 222‘Barely legal’ pornographyDespite a US Supreme Court rulingin 2002 223 criminalising ‘virtual’ childpornography – pornography featuringadults who appear to be minors orcomputer-generated imagery of minors– there has been an ‘explosion in thenumber of sites that childify women’ 224These include sites focusing on theyouthfulness of the females depicted, onloss of virginity, on pairing young womenwith much older men, and on glamorisingincest. 225 There is also a trend for femaleporn actresses to appear in preamblesto the main film talking direct to cameraabout their early sexual experiences; often,these will allegedly have taken place whilethe actress was still a child. 226There is evidence that such websitesencourage consumers to view children aslegitimate sex objects. Adults exposed to‘barely legal’ or virtual child pornographymake stronger links between youth and222Peter and Valkenburg (2006); Ward andRivadeneyra (1999)223Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002)224Olfman (2008)225Dines (2008)226Evidence provided to the Review by PeterJohnson, British Board of Film Classification (2009)sexuality than adults exposed to materialsfeaturing older-looking models and arealso more likely to associate sex andsexuality with subsequent non-sexualdepictions of minors. 227“For some men, children became theobject of their sexual desire, especiallyafter they clicked on the pop-up ads forteen porn, which led them into the PCP[Pseudo Child Porn] sites, and eventuallyinto real child porn. For some men, theteen sites were just a stepping stone tothe real thing, as they moved seamlesslyfrom adult women to children.” 228Computer gamesOnline games are by far the mostcommon way in which children aged8–11 in the UK make use of the internet,with 85 per cent of younger childrenand 64 per cent of adolescents playingregularly. 229 With advances in technology,games are becoming increasingly graphicand realistic. 230 At the same time, childrenare more and more likely to play gameswithout adult supervision: three-quartersof 12–15-year-olds have a games consolein their bedroom. 231Many games feature highly sexualisedcontent and there is a notable lack ofstrong female characters. In a recentcontent analysis, 83 per cent of malecharacters were portrayed as aggressive,while 60 per cent of female characterswere portrayed in a sexualised wayand 39 per cent were scantily clad. Theequivalent figures for male characterswere 1 per cent and 8 per centrespectively. 232 Violence against womenis often trivialised. For example, in the227Paul and Linz (2008); Ashcroft v. Free SpeechCoalition (2002)228Dines (2008)229Ofcom (2007)230Martinez and Manolovitz (2009)231Ofcom (2009)232Dill and Thill (2007)47

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewgame Rape-Lay, which was for a whileavailable to buy online via Amazon.com’smarketplace platform, players take onthe role of a rapist who stalks a motherbefore raping her and her daughters.There has also been a marked increasein the number of games depicting variousforms of sexual abuse. 233Many popular video games effectivelyreward children for engaging in violent,illegal activity, albeit virtually. The potentialnegative effects are compounded by thefact that so many children are playingthese games alone. The point was madeduring the evidence sessions that, whilemost parents are unlikely to let their childwatch an 18-rated film, their attitudeto age-inappropriate games is morelenient, perhaps due to their own lack ofunderstanding of the games’ themes andcontent.The link between violent content andaggression has been cited in severalstudies 234 and although it is overlysimplistic to make a direct link betweencause and effect, Byron concluded it iswidely accepted that exposure to contentthat children are either emotionally orcognitively not mature enough for canhave a potentially negative impact. 235This is backed up by children themselves:in a recent Ofcom survey, two-thirdsof 12–15-year-olds said they believedthat violence in games had more of animpact on behaviour than violence on TVor in films. 236Several studies in the past have suggestedthat violent content can impact behaviourincreasing aggression in children and youngpeople. The same learning processes thatunderlie these effects are also likely towork with sexualised content affectingsex-role beliefs, emotions and behaviour. 237Mobile devicesThe proliferation of media and theincreased accessibility of all kinds ofcontent is nowhere better illustratedthan by the growth in the mobile phonemarket. By the age of nine, 52 per centof British children have a phone; by theage of 15, that figure has risen to 95 percent. 238 Mobile phones allow young peopleeasy access to all kinds of online content,regardless of whether or not it is ageappropriate.The mobile porn industryThe global mobile porn industryis currently worth an estimated$2 billion. 239 Figures show that, in 2007,mobile phones were the UK’s biggestdistributor of pornography. 240 Globally,telecoms companies made $1.7 billionfrom ‘adult content’. Evidence suggeststhat a high proportion of queriesmade via mobile phone relate to241, 242adult content.239240241242The use of mobile phones as a tool forbullying, controlling or monitoring a datingpartnerhas attracted considerable mediaattention recently, and was frequentlyraised during the evidence sessions heldas part of this review. 243 Mobile phonesare also being used for so-called ‘sexting’48233Martinez and Manolovitz (2009)234Anderson and Dill (2000); Freedman (2002);Deselms and Altman (2003)235Byron (2008)236Ofcom (2008)237Dill and Thill (2007)238Ofcom (2008)239Juniper Research, cited in Daw and Cabb (2009)240Juniper Research, cited in Daw and Cabb (2009)241Kamvar and Baluja (2006)242Church and Smyth et al. (2007)243Evidence Hearing Sessions for the Review(May 2009 – July 2010)

Sexualisation of Young People Review– the sending of, often unsolicited, sexuallyexplicit messages.A recent survey of 2,000 young people 244found that 38 per cent of respondents hadreceived a sexually explicit or distressingtext or email and that, of these, 55 per centwere sent and received via mobile phones.The vast majority (85%) of ‘sexts’ were sentby someone the recipient knew. The surveyconcluded that ‘peer to peer anti-social/predatory behaviour is one of the biggestthreats facing our young people todayonline and via mobile phones’. 245 Thesefindings support Palfrey’s contention thatin many cases children’s safety and securityis being undermined by their peers, ratherthan by unknown adult predators. 246Most of the available literature on ‘sexting’comes from the US and is based onan online survey commissioned by TheNational Campaign to Prevent Teen andUnplanned Pregnancy. 247 This surveyfound that 20 per cent of teenagersaged 13–19 have either sent or posted‘nude or semi-nude’ images of themselves;findings which have been questioned onthe grounds that those responding to anonline questionnaire are inherently morelikely to answer ‘yes’. Others have pointedout that C.J. Pascoe’s research 248 in thesame area found hardly any mentions of‘sexting’. However, the comparison maybe unviable as Pascoe’s research had awider remit, was conducted by an adult ina face-to-face setting and was was largelycarried out before ‘sexting’ became awidespread trend. 249 The phenomenon hasalso been viewed as ‘a modern and slightly244Beatbullying (2009)245Beatbullying (2009)246Palfrey et al. (2008)247www.thenationalcampaign.org/SEXTECH/PDF/SexTech_Summary.pdf, retrieved February2010248Pascoe et al. (2007)249http://abluteau.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/which-is-epidemic-sexting-or-worrying-about-it/subversive example of teens-being-teensin the context of modern technologicalopportunity’. 250However, while the majority of theliterature on the subject recognises thatyoung people have always pushed theboundaries of what is acceptable and that,up to a point, ‘sexting’ can be seen as anew way of doing something that youngpeople have always done, it also stressesthe unprecedented scope of this newmedia. With this new wider scope comesnew risks, the full extent of which may nothave registered with teenagers.Music videos and lyricsOn average, young people listen tomusic for between 1.5 and 2.5 hourseach day. 251 Music lyrics and videos aretherefore a significant potential influenceon young people. Music videos across allgenres sexualise and objectify womenand between 44 and 81 per cent ofmusic videos contain sexual imagery. 252Emerson notes that artists tend to‘portray themselves with a highly stylisedand glamorous image’ 253 and that thatimage is often highly sexualised. Arnettsupports this, claiming that ‘...the portrayalof sexuality in popular music has becomeless subtle, [and] more explicit.’ 254Women are often shown in provocativeand revealing clothing, 255 and portrayedas decorative objects that dance and250Dr Richard Chalfen, guest blogger, Center onMedia and Child Healthhttp://cmch.typepad.com/cmch/2009/04/perspectives-on-sexting-past-i.html251Martino and Collins et al. (2006)252Gow (1990); Greeson and Williams (1986);Sherman and Dominick (1986); Argarbrightand Lee (2007); Brown, L’Engle, Pardur, Guo,Kenneavy, Jackson (2006); Peterson, Wingood,DiClemente, Harrington and Davies (2007)253Emerson (2004)254Arnett (2002)255Andsager and Roe (1999), Seidman (1992)49

Sexualisation of Young People Review50pose rather than, say, singing or playing aninstrument 256 They are depicted as beingin a state of sexual readiness, and thereis often a focus on their bodies or onspecific body parts and facial features. 257Even where women are the performers,they are often presented and portrayedin an overtly sexual way. Violence occursin 56.6 per cent of videos and visualpresentations of sexual intimacy in over75 per cent. Perhaps most tellingly, 81 percent of the videos containing violence alsoinclude sexual imagery. 258 Males are oftenshown as hyper-masculinised and sexuallydominant.In their experiment on exposure topornography, Zilllmann and Bryantdemonstrated that frequent exposure topornography resulted in both men andwomen becoming more accepting ofrape myths. Put simply, ‘rape myths’ area collection of untruths which minimisesthe occurrence of sexual violence anddiminishes the aggressor’s responsibility.While this study was primarily concernedwith measuring the effects of exposureto explicit sex, it did suggest that milderforms of sexual content, including thedepiction of women as sexual objects,might yield similar results. 259Research into the often sexual and violentcontent of music lyrics is comparativelythin on the ground. However, the APA TaskForce 260 noted the tendency of popularsong lyrics to sexualise women or referto them in a derogatory manner, citingexamples from popular mainstream artistslike N-Dubz (‘I don’t mean to be pushy,pushy, I’m just in it for the pussy, pussy’) and50 Cent (‘I tell the hos all the time, Bitchget in my car’).256Arnett (2002); Gow (1990)257Vincent et al. (1987)258Sherman and Dominick (1986)259Zillmann and Bryant (1989)260APA (2007)One study based on a sample of 160songs found that an average of 16 percent contained sexually degrading 261lyrics, rising to 70 per cent within certaingenres. 262 A 2006 study revealed that,while lyrics from almost all music genrescontained sexual content, degrading sexualcontent was most apparent in rap-rock,rap, rap-metal and R&B. The researchersidentified a possible link betweenexposure to popular music and earlyinitiation of sexual activity, pointing to theprevalence of sexual themes and referringto a previous longitudinal study linkingmusic video consumption with risky sexualbehaviour. 263It is important to remember here that thepossible association between sexualisedlyrics and sexual attitudes is not relatedto the sexual content of the lyrics alonebut also to their degrading nature. 264Lyrics like these are often accompaniedby comparable images, for example, rapartist Nelly swiping a credit card througha young woman’s buttocks (Tip Drill) andwomen being walked on leashes (P. I. M. P.by 50 cent). 265 In an article published in theApril 2009 issue of the American Journal ofPreventive Medicine, researchers found thatteenagers who preferred popular songswith degrading sexual references weremore likely to engage in intercourse or inpre-coital activities. 266The identities celebrated through differentmusic genres like rap and hip-hop hashighlighted some of the racist portrayalsof young black women. Researchershave suggested that young black girls are261Sexually degrading, as defined by (Rudmanand Borgida (1995)) “An environment thatimplicitly primes perceivers to categorisewomen negatively (e.g. as sexual objects in aninappropriate context)”262Martino et al. (2006)263Martino et al. (2006)264Martino et al. (2006). Quoted in Coy (2009)265Coy (2009)266Primack (2009)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewbeing encouraged to align themselveswith glamorised versions of pimp/hochic as a means of attaining personal andsocial power, but that these portrayalsin themselves reflect sexist, raciststereotypes. 267ConclusionMore than 30 years ago, cultural theoristMarshall McLuhan pointed out that weperceive the effect the media has on usabout as well as fish perceive the waterthey swim in. The evidence suggests thatit’s time for this to change; time that wetake a critical look at the impact of themedia messages to which our childrenare exposed and start thinking abouthow we can mitigate the negative effects.The fact is that the ideal of beautypresented in the media is arbitrary andlimiting. But for young girls, without theexperience and ability to filter thosemessages, without the confidence andself-esteem to contextualise what they’reseeing, the message comes across loudand clear: the only thing that mattersis being attractive and the only way tobe attractive is to be submissive andovertly sexual. And at the same time,we’re telling boys that the less emotionthey show and the less respectful theyare towards girls, the more ‘manly’the become.The process of internalisation is gradualand insidious. If you’re told that beingpretty means being thin, that beingattractive means showing off a ‘sexybody’, that objectifying women makesyou more of a man enough times, youstart to believe it’s true. Young peoplewho choose to present themselves andto behave in this way are simply followinga script, and it’s a script that we keepgiving them over and over again.Of course, young people’s reactions tothis barrage of sexualised imagery andnegative messaging will be informed bya whole host of factors. Socio-culturalfactors, family norms, personalityvariables and education all play arole. Nevertheless, the impact of ourtendency to internalise such messagesand the implications of this for our senseof self and self-worth should not beunderestimated.Installing filters on computers and lockson mobile phones is important, but267Coy (2009); Lamb and Brown (2006);Rose (2008)51

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewConclusion (cont.)sexualised content is everywhere andyoung people are often accessing italone, giving them no opportunity to askquestions or discuss their feelings.Businesses and the media have a partto play, too. To take just one example,how many people must have beeninvolved in the development of the gameRape-Lay? How many people eitherpretended not to notice its content, orpretended that it didn’t matter? Thatgame is now no longer available throughAmazon.com’s online marketplace, andthere are many other examples of ageinappropriategames and clothing beingput on sale and subsequently withdrawn.But there should be more to corporateresponsibility than simply saying sorryafter the event. Businesses should bethinking from the outset about what aproduct, a strapline, an image is reallysaying to children and young people.At the same time, we need to findways to guide children and youngpeople around developing tools asinformed media-savvy consumers. Theyneed to be able to understand thata magazine is selling a fantasy, and todistinguish that fantasy from reality. Theyneed to know that images are routinelybeing digitally altered – in some cases,almost beyond recognition – and theyneed to be equipped with the tools tomoderate and mitigate the effects of themessage and images that they come intocontact with. It is only when children andtheir care-givers are given knowledge andskills around media literacy, the rights andresponsibilities of sexual relationships,and safe engagement with technologies,that they will be able to navigate,question and challenge the images andmessages they are exposed to.52

Sexualisation of Young People Review6. The impact ofsexualisation“…pre-adolescents and adolescents arelike actors as they experiment with differentfeatures of their newly forming identities andtry on different social ‘masks’. This plasticitymay make them especially susceptible to themessages society conveys...” 268268IntroductionAs is the case with body imagedisturbance, sexualisation occurs on acontinuum. You don’t have to experiencesexual abuse to experience sexualisation,in the same way that you don’t haveto have Body Dysmorphic Disorder toexperience body dissatisfaction.A sexist song lyric, a doll in full make upand fishnet tights, a pre-teen who wearsa push-up bra to get the attention ofboys – these examples of sexualisationin action seem benign and, taken inisolation, perhaps they are. But the pointis that these things aren’t happening inisolation. They’re happening together,they’re happening to younger andyounger children, and in many casesthey are not being counterbalancedby guidance from a responsible wellinformedadult. And because what isrelevant is the interaction of thesedifferent social cues or behaviours, takingany one in isolation is usually dismissedas moral panic, with the suggestion thatpeople need to be more relaxed, tohave a greater sense of humour.Unfortunately, it’s under the guise ofhaving humour and being open-mindedthat the all important debates we needto be having are being avoided.Attitudes change and evolve overtime. We are now so desensitised tothe objectification of women thereis research to show that many youngwomen joke about and regulate eachothers’ behaviour by using demeaningsexist terms. In fact, so normalised hasthis objectification become that pairingup young babies with sexual innuendo isseemingly commonplace. A cursory websearch of cute or funny baby clothes,brings up a host of examples – oneof which is a baby outfit with words‘My mommy is a M.I.L.F’ with the caption‘Baby wants to let everyone know thathis/her mom is a hottie! A cute and funnyCreeper or T-Shirt for your baby, infant,or toddler.’ Funny or not, this is indicativeof how attitudes shape social behaviour.268Strasburger and Wilson (2002), paraphrased in Zurbriggen et al. (2007)53

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewIntroduction (cont.)There is strong evidence to show thatchildren learn from what they see, andthat they internalise those messagesto create their own set of ‘rules’ andcodes of behaviour. From the messagesthat they get from their parents andpeers, to the ads they view and thegames they play, children are constantlybeing bombarded with, and need tomake sense of, both overt and covertmessages around them.Interestingly, although we are happy toacknowledge the educational value ofgames, there seems some hypocrisywhen it comes to what we are willing toaccept that children are actually learning.Making the point that educationalcomputer games can help developlearning is fine but we can not in thesame breath state that violent or genderstereotypedgames have no effect.It’s pretty clear that the mechanisms wehave used over the years to tell girls theyshould be thinner are working. Eatingdisorders are on the rise with BEAT (aNational Charity offering support forpeople affected by eating disorders)and several other international studiesreporting increases. Eating disorders havethe highest mortality rate of any mentalillness. The mortality rate associated withanorexia nervosa is 12 times higher thanthe death rate from all causes of deathfor females 15–24 years old. 269Clearly, through various mechanisms,girls have been encouraged to seetheir value and hence seek to controlor affect their lives through being thinand beautiful. Now we’re starting tosee what happens when you tweak themessage to tell girls that they need to benot only thin, but also sexually desirable.Interestingly, as anorexia increases so nowdoes the number of young women havingbreast implants and at an increasinglyyounger age. The intent arguably is tofeel accepted, to feel desirable and tofeel in control of their destinies – afterall, as some theorists would argue, thesexualisation of young women is nowbeing re-packaged as empowerment.It can be tempting to think that girls aretaking the brunt, that boys have it easier.It still seems to be the case that a mancan be recognised and respected forsomething other than his looks. But insome ways, the messages we’re sendingout to boys are just as limiting andrestrictive: be macho, be strong, don’tshow your emotions. Hyper-sexualisationof femininity can’t exist without hypermasculinisationof males. They feed offand reinforce each other.In this section, we look at howsexualisation is affecting people’sconfidence, self-esteem and mentalhealth, influencing the way individualsrelate to each other and effectivelyreshaping social norms.26954269http://www.anorexia-nervosa-treatment.net/index.php (US statistics)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewBody image“I’m probably going to get my tits done soon.It’s not really that big a deal any more. Loadsof people do it.”Girl, 15, interviewed byRespect UK 270The mass media promotes and reinforcesan idealised notion of beauty for bothmen and women, presenting standards –of thinness for women and of muscularityfor men – that few can ever hope toachieve. As girls are hyper-sexualised, soboys are being hyper-masculinised. Ofcourse young people respond to mediamessages in complex ways but repeatedexposure to these images and messagescan lead both sexes to internalisepotentially harmful messages about theirown behaviour, their relationships witheach other and, ultimately, their value ashuman beings.Researchers agree that the female bodiesdepicted in the media are getting thinner. 271There is also evidence to suggest that girlsand young women adopt and internaliseidealised representations of the femaleform. 272 An analysis of results from 25experimental studies revealed that womenfelt significantly worse about their bodiesafter viewing pictures of thin modelsthan after viewing images of average- orplus-sized models. 273 Similarly, men weremore depressed and had higher levels ofmuscle dissatisfaction after seeing advertscontaining idealised images. 274 For bothsexes, exposure to idealised images in270Focus group consisting of African young peopleliving in South London. Held by Respect UK(2010)271Ogletree, Williams, Raffield, Mason and Fricke(1990); Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson and Kelly(1986); Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann and Ahrens(1992)272Thompson and Stice (2001); Schooler, Ward,Merriwether and Caruthers (2004)273Groesz et al. (2002)274Agliata (2004)magazines is linked with concerns aboutphysical appearance and eating problems. 275Evidence also suggests that ‘…negativeself-evaluation in terms of body weightand appearance is being practised byincreasingly younger generations. Thisincludes boys as well as girls.’ 276 Children asyoung as six are expressing dissatisfactionwith their bodies and concerns about theirweight. 277 A series of group discussions runon behalf of the Girl Guiding Associationwith girls aged seven and over found thatmany were seriously dissatisfied with theirappearance and weight. Nearly threequartersof 7–11-year-olds wanted tochange some aspect of their appearance.By the age of 10–11, one in eight wantedto be thinner, rising to 21 per cent among11–16-year-olds and 33 per cent of thoseaged 16–21. Among this older group,50 per cent said that they would considerhaving cosmetic surgery to change theirappearance. 278The pressure on boys to be muscular maybe just as harmful as the pressure on girlsto be thin. 279 A study of 595 adolescentsfound that, while exposure to idealisedadverts did not lead to increased bodydissatisfaction for boys, it did lead toincreased negative mood and appearancecomparison for both sexes. 280 A selfreportingexercise involving 14–16-yearolds281 found that both boys and girls wereexperiencing body shame and practisingbody surveillance. 282Idealised images also influence boys’attitudes to girls’ bodies. A group of13–15-year-old boys looked at 20 adverts275Morry and Staska (2001)276Hill (2006)277Flannery-Schroeder and Chrisler (1996);Smolak and Levine (1994)278The Guide Assocation (2009)279Botta (2003)280Hargreaves and Tiggemann (2004)281Knauss and Paxton et al. (2008)282Botta (2003)55

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewfeaturing idealised images of thin women,while a second group looked at neutralimages. The groups were then asked torank 10 characteristics, including slimnessand physical attractiveness, according totheir importance when choosing a partneror girlfriend. Results suggested that boyswere more likely to rate slimness andattractiveness as important after viewingthe ‘thin ideal’ images, and pointed toa link between this and boys’ level ofconcern with their own body image. Theresearchers concluded that the mediawas leading boys to have unrealisticexpectations of girls and to evaluate themin an unfavourable and unrealistic way. 283Body image andsexualisation“Body dissatisfaction is the discrepancybetween someone’s actual body size andthe ideal body size presented in the media.Body dissatisfaction is so ubiquitous that it isdescribed as normative.” 284The concept of body image arises oftenwhen looking at the issue of sexualisation.The process by which idealised formsof the body are internalised and howthis relates to sexualisation and selfobjectificationis important to consider.There is trend research that suggests thatyoung girls adopt and internalise idealisedrepresentations of the female formdepending on what is being celebratedand validated by their culture. 285Several researchers have demonstratedthe way the female body is depicted in themedia has become increasingly thin overthe years and that body weight trends infashion and media mirror trends in thewider society. 286 What we need to takenote of is why girls have internalised thebeauty myth and the thin ideal. The subtlepre-conscious messages linking thinness tosuccess and happiness have actually hada significant impact on young women’sbehaviour and decision-making. This isevidenced by the increasing focus onbody dissatisfaction and rise in cosmeticsurgery and eating disorders. Researchersand clinicians have also noted a tendencyamongst girls for self-objectification, i.e.the process whereby one becomes moreconcerned and engaged with how onesbody is perceived by others while deemphasisingones own subjective feelings,and internal awareness. 287The case of body image is a good exampleof what happens if we encourage girls andyoung women to equate their self-worthwith narrow idealised representations ofthe female form. Perhaps it also gives ussome insight into where we are headedwith the hyper-sexualised environmentthat young girls are growing up in today,where the dominant message to girlsseems to be to focus on others’ sexualinterest in and physical judgement ofthem, rather than their own desires,abilities and interests.56283Hargreaves and Tiggemann (2003)284Murnen et al. (2003)285Cash and Fleming (2002)286Ogletree, Williams, Raffeld, Mason and Fricke(1990); Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson and Kelly(1986); Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann and Ahrens(1992)287APA (2007)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThe long-term effectsWhen girls evaluate themselvesagainst unrealistic airbrushed imagesit cultivates a feeling of falling short,of not being ‘good enough’. This thenleads to appearance anxiety – a processlabelled by some theorists as ‘normativediscontent’. 288 Hyper-sexualised, valueladenimages and messages that girlsare exposed to are having a profoundimpact not only on their body imagebut on their sense of self.The evidence suggests that even briefexposure to images of thin modelscan lead to acute body dissatisfaction;similar trends emerge from longer-termstudies. One such study looked at theimpact of giving girls a subscriptionto fashion magazines on levels of thinideal internalisation, body dissatisfaction,dieting and bulimia and negative feelingsand emotions. The research foundthat extended exposure was likely tohave a long-term impact on ‘vulnerable’teenagers. 289There has been a subtle but significantshift with regard to what girls are beigvalidated for. Increasingly, the messagebeing sent out to girls is that youth andbeauty aren’t enough: they’ve got to be‘sexy’, too. Sexiness and desirability formthe core of a girl’s value and identity. 290And when we encourage girls to equatetheir self-worth with a narrow,idealised – and, for most, unachievable– representation of the female form,we are encouraging them to thinkof themselves as objects. Girls arebecoming more concerned with howothers perceive them than with theirown interests and desires. 291This self-objectification fits well withthe current media focus on selfimprovement– not in the form oflearning a new skill but of enhancingone’s physical appearance. 292 Theimplication is that the antidote towhatever ails you – bad relationships,depression, low-self-esteem – is tochange the way you look to moreclosely resemble the current ideal.It has been suggested that greater medialiteracy could help to ameliorate thenegative effects of exposure to idealisedimages. 293 However, some researchershave expressed the concern that, overtime, any benefit would be outweighedby the sheer volume of images incirculation, suggesting that, to be trulyeffective, measures to improve medialiteracy needed to be accompaniedby wider use of average-sized modelsand initiatives aimed at encouragingsociety as a whole to take a morecritical and questioning approach to theperpetuation of unrealistic ideals.288289290291292293288McRobbie (2007). Quoted in Coy andGarner (in press)289Stice and Spangler et al. (2001)290Gill (2007)291APA (2007)292Brumberg (1997)293Yamamiya and Cash et al. (2005)57

Sexualisation of Young People Review58Plastic surgery“Sexualisation leads to poor self-image andlack of confidence in girls that affects healthand the capacity to reach potential.” 294Rising levels of body dissatisfaction and thede-medicalisation of plastic surgery hasled to a major increase in the number ofwomen seeking to achieve the thin idealby surgical means. The UK spends moreon plastic and cosmetic surgery than anyother country in Europe, with the totalfigure for 2009 expected to reach£1.2 billion. 295 As many as 15 per centof those who undergo cosmetic surgeryhave body dysmorphic disorder, wheresufferers become fixated on what are inreality quite minor physical flaws. 296In 2005, over 77,000 invasive plasticsurgery procedures were performedon young people aged 19 or under inAmerica. 297 By 2008, the total numberof plastic surgery procedures (includingminimally invasive procedures) carriedout on young people aged 13–19 hadreached 219,136. 298 According to theAmerican Society of Plastic Surgeons, 299young people are having plastic surgery tofit in with their peers and to improve theirself-esteem and confidence. Evidence alsosuggests that a growing number of parentsare allowing their daughters to undergoplastic/cosmetic surgery in order to treatpoor self-esteem or poor body image. 300294Coy (2009)295www.cosmeticsurgerybible.com/2009/news/uk-cosmetic-surgery-negligence-claimsincrease/703)296www.cosmeticsurgerybible.com/2007/typesof-surgery/breast-enlargement/breast-implantslinked-to-suicide-risk/105)297American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS)(2008)298ASPS (2008)299ASPS (2008)300ASPS (2008)Mental healthExposure to the sexualised female idealis linked with lower self-esteem, negativemoods and depression in young womenand girls. 301 Adolescent girls exposed toadverts featuring idealised women havesignificantly higher State Depressionscores 302 ; and frequent exposure to films,TV and music videos featuring idealisedimages is linked to lower self-esteem 303(particularly among Black and Latinoyoung people), 304 stress, guilt, shame andinsecurity. 305 Researchers have suggestedthat internalising conventional ideasabout femininity leads girls to questiontheir worth as individuals and that, themore depressed they become, the morelikely they are to suppress their feelingsabout their bodies and ignore their own‘authentic’ voices. 306In a longitudinal study spanning fouryears, Stice and Hayward et al. identifiedbody dissatisfaction, eating disordersand depression as accurate predictorsof which girls would go on to develop‘major depression’. 307 Another, shorter,longitudinal study by the same researchersfound that although there was nostatistical relationship between long-termexposure to thin images, the internalisationof the thin ideal and body dissatisfaction,dieting and bulimic symptoms, vulnerableviewers were suffering adverse effects. 308Links have also been identified betweenfeeling dissatisfied with one’s life and theconsumption of online pornography.Researchers observed a vicious circle301APA (2007)302Durkin and Paxton (2002); Mills, Polivy, Hermanand Tiggemann (2002)303Rivadeneyra, Ward and Gordon (2007); Ward(2004)304Rivadeneyra, Ward and Gordon (2007)305Stice and Shaw (1994)306Tolman, Tracy, Michael and Impett (2006)307Stice and Hayward et al. (2000)308Stice and Spangler et al. (2001)

Sexualisation of Young People Revieweffect, with dissatisfaction leading to moreproblematic internet use leading in turn togreater dissatisfaction and so on. 309Eating disorders“I think that today’s...media puts a lot ofpressure on young people. In the last yearor so I’ve started worrying a lot more aboutmy weight and body image. That could becaused by all the magazines I read in aweek.” 310The eating disorder charity BEATestimates that 1.6 million people in theUK have an eating disorder. The vastmajority of these – some 1.4 million – arefemale. 311 Over time, the fluctuation ineating disorder levels reflect changes infashion and, therefore, in the ‘desirability’ ofthe idealised thin body shape. 312“The ratios of bust-to-waist and hip-to-waistmeasurements of women depicted in Vogueand Ladies Home Journal were low in the1920s and 1930s, high in the 1950s, and lowagain in the 1960s and 1970s. ...these ratiosvaried over time inversely with the occurrenceof anorexia nervosa in 10-19-year-old girls.The thin, non-curvaceous standard precededthe time periods when the rates for anorexianervosa were highest.” 313Numerous studies link sexualisation andthe depiction of women as sex objectsto the occurrence of eating disorders.This supports findings pointing to a linkbetween exposure to adverts and TVprogrammes featuring slim models andinaccurate estimations of body size, 314body dissatisfaction, 315 and eating disordersymptomatology. 316, 317 These links cannotbe explained away by a prior interest infitness and dieting. 318Furthermore, a study involving 366adolescents found that exposure to socalled‘fat character TV’ (where fatnessis portrayed in a negative light and/or asbeing synonymous with traits like gluttony,untrustworthiness and sloppiness)predicted eating disorders in oldergirls, while ‘fat character TV’ predictedbody dissatisfaction among youngerboys. 319 There is also a link betweenthe consumption of fashion and beautymagazines and dieting practices such aslimiting the intake of calories and takingdiet pills. 320Just as with body image (see page 55),eating disorders are affecting children ata younger and younger age. The sameresearch 321 found that 42 per cent ofgirls aged 11–16 had either carefullymonitored their food intake or restrictedtheir intake of certain foods ‘to excess’.Another study 322 surveyed 581 nine- and10-year-old girls and found that 11 percent of nine-year-olds and 7 per cent of10-year-olds scored ‘in the anorexic range’.Over a third of girls selected ‘ideal’ figuresthat were smaller than their actual bodies.While levels of body dissatisfaction wereconsistent across ethnic groups, girls fromminority ethnic backgrounds scored higherfor eating disturbances.309Peter and Valkenburg (2006)310Girl quoted in Growing up in a material world –Charter on Commercialisation (2007)311www.b-eat.co.uk/PressMediaInformation#iHn0,retrieved December 2009312Lucas, Beard, O’Fallon and Kurland (1991)313Lucas, Beard, O’Fallon and Kurland (1991)314Myers and Biocca (1992); Sumner, Waller et al.(1993)315Irving (1990); Richins (1991); Stice and Shaw(1994)316Harrison and Cantor (1997); Stice et al. (1994)317Stice and Schupak-Neuberg et al. (1994)318Harrison and Cantor (1997)319Harrison (2000)320Thomsen, Weber, & Brown (2002)321The Guide Association (2009)322DeLeel, Hughes and Miller et al. (2009)59

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewPro-ana and pro-miawebsitesPro-anorexia (pro-ana) and pro-bulimia(pro-mia) websites advocate andencourage the perception of eatingdisorders as lifestyle choices ratherthan serious psychological disorders. 323Sites often provide tips and tricks onhow to maintain (or initiate) anorexicor bulimic behaviour and resistingtreatment or recovery. 324Such websites are widely viewed,and often seem to attract vulnerableyoung people. In a study of 13–17-yearolds, 12.6 per cent of girls and 5.9 percent of boys had visited pro-ana orpro‐mia sites. 325 Girls were more likelyto demonstrate a higher drive forthinness, a worse perception of theirown appearance and higher levels ofperfectionism, making them a high riskgroup for the development of eatingdisorders.Among healthy young women, viewingsuch sites induced low self-esteem andnegative views about their appearance.Viewers also saw themselves asheavier, said that they were more likelyto exercise and/or think about theirweight in the near future, and weremore likely to compare their ownimage with that of others. 326 In a largesurvey of university students, womenwho used pro-eating disorder websiteshad higher levels of body dissatisfactionand eating disturbance than a controlgroup. 327323324325326327Gender stereotypingRepeated exposure to genderstereotypicalideas and images contributesto sexist attitudes and beliefs, sexualharassment, violence against women,eating disorders and stereotypedperceptions of and behaviour towardmen and women. 328 Gender-stereotypicalideas and images in the media generate a‘distorted body image by setting unrealisticstandards of female beauty and thinness’. 329Research into the impact of exposure toboth sexist 330 and non-sexist TV advertsfound that women exposed to sexistadverts saw their bodies as larger, andexperienced a bigger discrepancy betweentheir perceived and their actual body sizethan a control group. 331 The researchersconcluded that sexist adverts ‘have directand socially consequential implications forpsychological adjustment and well-being’,leading to body dissatisfaction which inturn is linked with depression and loss ofself-esteem.The sexualisation of women – and, morewidely, the pornification of culture – canput pressure on boys to act out a versionof masculinity based on the display ofpower over women. Boys are told thatbeing a ‘real’ man means being in control,particularly when it comes to intimateand sexual relationships. 332 Increasingly,boys are encouraged to construct theiridentities and to understand and affirmtheir masculinity through their sexualityand sexual experiences. 333 The acquisitionof sexual experience then becomesan opportunity to demonstrate sexualcompetence or accomplishment rather60323Royal College of Psychiatrists (2009)324Norris et al. (2006); Harshbarger et al. (2009)325Custers and Van den Bulck (2009)326Bardone-Cone and Cass (2007)327Harper et al. (2008)328Kilbourne and Lazarus (1987); Lazier-Smith(1989)329Lavine, Sweeney and Wagner (1999)330Defined as sexual and limited in gender role331Lavine, Sweeney and Wagner (1999)332Ricardo and Barker (2008)333Fracher and Kimmel (1998)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewthan an act of intimacy. 334 Given this, it isperhaps not too much of a leap to posita link between the messages being sentout to boys and the normalisation ofaggressive – or even violent behaviour –towards girls and women as demonstratedin the next chapter.335Early sexual activityThe UK has the highest teenagepregnancy rate in western Europe. 335Almost 43,000 girls aged 18 orunder became pregnant in 2007.Young people continue to bedisproportionately affected by sexuallytransmitted infections (STIs): despitemaking up just 12 per cent of thepopulation, in 2008 16–24-year-oldsaccounted for 65 per cent of newChlamydia cases, 55 per cent of newcases of genital warts and 17 per centof new syphilis diagnoses. Althoughthe total number of gonorrhoea casesfell by 11 per cent between 2007 and2008, the Health Protection Agency’sSexually Transmitted InfectionsDepartment believes that there isstill a ‘substantial pool’ of people withundiagnosed STIs.Sexual objectification“Although sexual objectification is but oneform of gender oppression, it is one thatfactors into – and perhaps enables – a hostof other oppressions women face, rangingfrom employment discrimination and sexualviolence to the trivialisation of women’s workand accomplishments.”’ 336Sexual objectification occurs when aperson is portrayed solely as a sexualobject, and viewed as a collection ofsexual and physical attributes rather334Marsigilio (1988); Nzioka (2001)335UNICEF (2001)336Fredrickson and Roberts (1997)than as an individual. While mediaimages objectify both men and women,women are significantly more likely to beportrayed in a sexually objectified way.A survey of advertising images found thatwomen were three times more likelythan men to be dressed in a sexuallyprovocative way. Around 80 per cent ofthe images showed women in sexuallyexplicit postures, while in half of all images,women were represented by a body partor parts only, compared with 17 per centof men. 337When objectified magazine images of bothmen and women were shown to childrenaged between six and 12, the girls showedsignificant awareness of body esteemissues and a tendency to internalisethe images. Moreover, girls who wereuncertain as to how to respond to thethin, sexy ideal presented to them tendedto have lower self-esteem than girlswho consistently rejected the images. 338Research also shows that pornographyleads viewers – both male and female – toview women as sex objects. 339 See page46 for more detail.Lap-dancing andglamour modellingWith the ubiquity of sexualisation andthe increasing pornification of societyhas come the mainstreaming of the sexindustry, as exemplified by the proliferationof lap-dancing clubs. Sexualisation – andthe commodification of women and girls– is now so ingrained in our culture thatlap-dancing is widely viewed as acceptable,‘making the harm of commercial sexualexploitation invisible’. 340 The number oflap-dancing clubs in the UK currentlystands at around 300. 341 Increasingly, such337Reichert (1999)338Murnen and Smolak et al. (2003)339Peter and Valkenburg (2007)340Object (2009)341Home Office (2009a)61

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewclubs – along with sex shops, topless barsand other similar businesses – are locatedalongside mainstream entertainmentvenues, raising their profile and increasingtheir visibility. 342Sexualisation is tied to economic marketsin the forms of beauty and sex industries,that both opens and restricts the breadthand variety of identities and ambitionsopen to young women. Growing numbersof girls are aspiring to careers thatdemand a ‘sexy’ image. Surveys have foundfor instance that a high proportion ofyoung women in the UK aspire to work as‘glamour models’ or lap-dancers. A recentonline survey that asked 1,000 15–19 yearolds to indicate what their ideal professionwould be from a list containing careersincluding doctor and teacher, found that63 per cent of 15–19 year olds consideredglamour modelling their ideal professionwhile a quarter of the all girls surveyedcited lap dancer as their top choice. 343A report released by the Departmentfor Work and Pensions 344 shows thatJobcentres are routinely advertising forvacancies at escort agencies, lap-dancingclubs, massage parlours and TV sexchannels: we are seeing the normalisationof these trades as viable career choices.This is based on an economic andcultural context that is giving rise to theincreasing uses of a woman’s body formale satisfaction through, for example, theinternational sex trades and hard and softcore pornography industries.Several theorists have argued that the‘aspirational’ connotations now associatedwith glamour modelling and lap-dancingare reflective of wider changes in ourculture; what Rosalind Gill refers to as ‘thepornification of culture’. 345 This describesthe phenomenon whereby young peopleare exposed to images and messagesderived from pornography in increasinglydiverse and disparate areas of society.This exposure affects all young people,regardless of their background andeducation. While some might arguethat they are making a free choice,commentators have noted that thehyper-sexualisation of culture is beginningto co-opt the language of freedom andchoice. 346 When girls are told over andover again not only that their appearanceis all that matters, but that exploiting theirappearance is a route to success, it islittle wonder that many are choosing totake this route. A monolithic view of the‘ideal’ women combined with the biasedportrayal of such jobs in popular andcelebrity culture is limiting, rather thanincreasing, the choices open to young girls.62342Hubbard et al.(2008); Egan et al.(2006)343Deely (2008)344www.parliament.uk/deposits/depositedpapers/2008/DEP2008-3155.doc345Gill (2009)346Walter (2010)

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewPeople traffickingIt is difficult to obtain a reliable figurefor the number of adults and childrenbeing trafficked to the UK for thepurposes of sexual exploitation. Thisis by its very nature a covert crime.However, Home Office researchsuggests that in 2003 there were upto 4,000 women who were victimsof trafficking for sexual exploitation inthe UK; and in 2009 CEOP (the ChildExploitation and Online ProtectionCentre) estimated that the potentialnumber of child trafficking victimswas 325.The link between pornographyand organised crime is a longand established one. 347 Together,pornography, people trafficking andprostitution contribute to a networkof exploitation that fuels the global sextrade. 348 According to the UN, globalprofits from the trafficking of humanbeings currently stand at around$7 billion, equivalent in monetaryterms to the global trade in drugs.As with all economic systems, theremust first be demand before therecan be supply. In this scenario, it isargued, the demand is being fuelled bythe widespread depiction of girls andwomen as sex objects. 349347348349347Attorney-General’s Commission onPornography Final Report (1986)348Sarikakis and Shaukat (2007)349Sarikakis and Shaukat (2007)63

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewConclusionThe research summarised in thissection suggests that there are negativeconsequences associated with thesexualisation of children in terms of bodydissatisfaction, lower self-esteem, sexualharassment and views on sexual violence.It’s unrealistic to assume that we canstop our children and young people fromseeing sexualised images and messages.But what we can do is give them tools tohelp them understand and interpret whatthey see, and build up their confidenceso that they feel secure in their ownidentity. In the past it was adult womenwho felt the imperative to look ‘sexy’.Now this imperative is in danger of beingadopted by younger and younger girlswho will inevitably face the same feelingsof inadequacy, failure to live up to anunrealistic ideal, and a distillation of theirself-worth that it is only based on theability to attract attention from others.Children who don’t feel happy aboutthemselves are more likely to latch onto things that promise popularity andacceptance. As the evidence in thissection shows, all too often that willmean conforming either to the hypersexyor the hyper-masculine norm. Theevidence suggests that children with lowself-esteem, and those without a close,supportive family network, are mostvulnerable to sexualised content andmost likely to suffer negative impacts.It’s a double whammy: there’s no onethere to moderate their activities so theyare more likely to have more frequentand more prolonged exposure toinappropriate material and when theyare exposed to this material there is noone there to talk to about it or to helpmake sense of it.Many young women now believe thatthe only confidence worth having issexual confidence – and while sexualconfidence is certainly important itseems that what this hyper-sexualisedsociety is selling to girls is actually acaricature of sexual confidence. Fromthe physical attributes of cosmeticallyenhanced breasts to the ‘sexual scripts’of pleasing your partner ‘no matterwhat’, the porn star ideal of sexualityand beauty is certainly not the onlyand arguably not the best way foryoung women to attain ownership oftheir sexuality. Perhaps we need to bediscussing with young people that truesexual confidence and sexual liberationmeans that you don’t have to enjoy andaccept all forms of sexual entertainmentfor the sake of seeming comfortable withyour sexuality.Schools can help children developthe capacity to interpret and filterinformation and to recognise and valuediversity. As such perhaps we need toconsider the value of media literacyand gender studies and begin to seethem as core to the curriculum weteach our children. Sex education, too,must focus on preparing young peopleto form healthy, respectful, emotionallyfulfilling relationships. Focusing onprevention of STIs and the mechanicsof sex, while important, does notprepare young people for the complexemotional nuisances, power dynamics,and performance anxiety of early sexualrelationships.Advertising is a multi-billion poundindustry because it works – it has aneffect – so to say that its impact on youngpeople hasn’t been proven is disingenuous.What we need to consider is how theeffect of the media interacts with otherfactors (psychological, familial and social)to bring about a situation where youngpeople’s sexuality is commodified andultimately used against them.64

Sexualisation of Young People Review7. Sexualisation andviolence“Violence is something one learns. It requiresthe desensitisation of the consumer, and his/her emotional distancing from the humanity ofthe persons involved. Pornography is construedupon the fragmentation and deduction of thefemale body into parts...” 350350IntroductionIt is tempting to dismiss the link betweensexualisation and violence as being toofar-fetched. Yet the evidence cited in theprevious sections suggests a clear linkbetween consumption of sexualisedimages, a tendency to view women asobjects and the acceptance of aggressiveattitudes and behaviour as the norm.In many ways, sexualisation leads todehumanisation. Both the images weconsume, and the way we consumethem, are lending credence to the ideathat women are there to be used andthat men are there to use them.Sexual abuse and sexual violence are,thankfully, at the extreme end of thespectrum of impacts of sexualisation.Nevertheless, it is imperative that weacknowledge the very real possibilitythat, say, pornography that shows girlstalking with relish about pre-teen sexualexploits, or highly realistic video gameswhere players take on the role ofstalker and rapist might start to blur theboundaries between what is acceptableand what is not.I have already made the point that in thepast few years pornography has becomea part of mainstream culture. But it isimportant to note that we are not talkinghere about idealised or exaggerateddepictions of mainstream erotica or sex.Increasingly, porn is dominated by themesof aggression, power and control. And,as the porn industry increasingly pushesthe boundaries, so mainstream culturefollows suit.350Sarikakis and Shaukat (2007)65

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewIntroduction (cont.)By sending out the message that girlsare there to be used and abused, thereis a danger that we are turning boysinto consumers of the female body, whosee sex as a means of domination andcontrol rather than an act of intimacyand a source of mutual pleasure. Onegirl interviewed as part of a recent studyon gang violence gave the followingexplanation for why girls have sex:“It’s to keep the boy happy… to makehim like you more and to please him andstop him from having sex with other girls.Sometimes it hurts but you don’t want tosay anything because then he’ll just leaveyou for someone that will do all the stuffhe wants and please him better.” 351Many of the professionals who workwith gangs and informed this reviewnoted that in gang culture, sex is referredto as ‘beating’ and, increasingly, rape isbeing used as the weapon of choice tosettle disputes or get revenge withgang members by raping girlfriends,sisters and even mothers of their rivals.And although gangs make up only asmall part of society in the UK, theuse of violence as a means to punishand control is not just in the domainof sub‐cultures. The shocking resultsof a recent survey carried out by theNSPCC show that for many youngpeople, violence within relationships iscommonplace. It seems that notions ofpower and control over the female body,and the pressure on boys to conform toa hyper-masculine ideal, are having a veryreal – and very damaging – effect on ourday-to-day lives.This section provides an overview ofthe evidence for the links betweensexualisation and aggression, includingviolence within relationships. It alsoconsiders the role of pornography innormalising violent behaviour.351Attitudes to violence“Images of women as objects or insubmissive poses normalises violence againstwomen. Men associate these images withwomen walking down the street.”Focus group participant 352There is a significant amount of evidencelinking stereotypical attitudes to women’ssexuality, adversarial sexual beliefs,acceptance of the ‘rape myth’ 353 and sexistbeliefs with aggressive sexual behaviour. 354A recent Home Office survey found that36 per cent of people polled believed thata woman should be held wholly or partlyresponsible for being sexually assaultedor raped if she was drunk, while 26 percent believed a woman should acceptat least part of the blame for an attackif she was out in public wearing sexy orrevealing clothes. 355351Evidence provided in a focus group, held aspart of the Review (2009)352Women’s National Commission (2009)353See definition on page 50354Dean and Malamuth (1997); Malamuth andBriere (1986); Malamuth and Donnerstein(1982, 1984); Murnen, Wright and Kaluzny(2002); Osland, Fitch and Willis (1996); Spence,Losoff and Robbins (1991); Truman, Tokar andFischer (1996); Vogel (2000)355Home Office (2009)66

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThere is also a connection betweenexposure to stereotypical images ofwomen in adverts and aggressive orviolent attitudes. Researchers suggest that,by encouraging male viewers to internalisethe notion of women as sexual beings,adverts create a hierarchy within whichwomen are viewed as subordinate and,therefore, as appropriate targets for sexualviolence. 356 The repeated depiction of menas dominant and aggressive and femalesas subordinate and demeaned is arguablyperpetuating violence against women. 357Adults – including women 358 – whoviewed sexually objectifying images ofwomen in the mainstream media weremore likely to be accepting of violence. 359A significant number of men exposed tovideo games featuring hyper-sexualisedcharacters made judgments that suggestedgreater tolerance of sexual harassment;in the longer-term, exposure correlatedwith tolerance of sexual harassment andgreater acceptance of the ‘rape myth’. 360A study of 458 young adolescentsexamining the relationship between familyenvironment, gender-focused themes andnarratives in music videos and attitudestowards sexual harassment 361 showedthat, while girls were less accepting ofsexual harassment than boys, exposureto music videos reduced their resistance.This was particularly true for girls withouta supportive family. For both boys andgirls, frequent TV viewing and exposureto pornographic material led to greateracceptance of sexual harassment. Thestudy also identified a link betweenviewing sexualised images of girls, atendency to view younger girls as potential356Lanis and Covell (1995)357Murnen et al. (2007); Dill and Brown et al.(2008)358Johnson and Adams et al. (1995)359Kalof (1999); Lanis and Covell (1995)360Dill and Brown et al. (2008)361Strouse and Goodwin et al. (1994)sexual partners and a more tolerantattitude towards child sexual abuse. 362A recent longitudinal study of 1,000 boysfrom birth to 25 looked at how theirlevels of self-esteem affected their risk ofviolent behaviour. Boys with higher levelsof self-esteem at 15 were less likely to beviolent offenders by the age of 25, whilelower levels of self-esteem were linkedto a greater risk of violence at 18, 21and 25. 363 A survey of 13,650 pupils aged11–16 from 39 schools across Englandfound that lack of self-concern and lowself-esteem were useful constructs inpredicting adolescent violence. 364Partner violence“Our research has uncovered, for the firsttime in the UK, the shocking levels ofviolence – physical, emotional and sexual– that many girls experience from theirpartners. Indeed...this may be the mostprevalent form of violence girls experiencein their childhoods. We can no longer ignorethis fundamental welfare problem and thedamage it does to girls’ well-being and theirlong-term life chances.”University of Bristol & NSPCCresearch report 365A recent survey commissioned by theNSPCC 366 found that 33 per cent ofteenage girls aged 13–17 had beensubjected to unwanted sexual acts whilein a relationship, and 25 per cent hadsuffered physical violence. Among boys,18 per cent had experienced physicalviolence. Nearly three-quarters ofgirls and half of boys claimed to haveexperienced some form of ‘emotionalviolence’ from their partner, with girlsmore likely to have experienced this in a362Strouse and Goodwin et al. (1994)363Boden and Horwood et al. (2007)364Sutherland and Shepherd (2002)365Barter, McCarry, Berridge and Evans (2009)366Barter, McCarry, Berridge and Evans (2009)67

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewdirect or overt form. Girls and boys whohad had a family member or peer behaveviolently towards them were more at riskof partner violence; outside the home,girlfriends and boyfriends are the mostcommon perpetrators of sexual abuseand violence. 367Although both sexes are experiencingpartner violence, more girls are sufferingand the impact of this suffering is greater.A significant proportion of the girlssurveyed stated that the violencehad seriously affected their welfare; forboys, there appeared to be fewconsequences. Researchers also remarkedon the level of coercive control apparentin young people’s relationships and, again,on the impact of this on girls in particular.Significant numbers of girls were subjectto high levels of control overwhere theycould go, who they could see and whatthey could do. Many found themselvesunder constant surveillance via the internet,mobile phones and text messaging. Suchcontrol often led to girls becoming isolatedfrom their peer networks.Sexualised violence inschoolsSexual harassment, and gendered andsexualised name-calling and bullying areon the rise in both primary and secondaryschools. 368 Research has uncovered somealarming examples of how the apparentacceptability of violent behaviour isshaping gender roles and relationships:“You know K – if she calls me namesI’ll smack her around the cheek… I’d justgrab her and I’d punch her and make thempay for it. I can’t help it, it’s not me. My handjust goes, ‘boom’.”Boy, aged 12 369“It’s a known fact that boys normally bullygirls because they like them. If you hit themit’s cos you fancy them… first signs of love.”Girl, aged 14 370Statistics from the Department forChildren, Schools and Families showat least 120 permanent 371 and 3,450fixed period exclusions attributed tosexual misconduct in the academic year2007/08. 372The Youth Justice Board reports a risein recent years in the number of sexualoffences committed by young peoplewhich result in a pre-court or court‘disposal’. Sexual offences include a widecategory of offences which vary in theirlevel of severity, ranging from unlawfulsexual intercourse to rape. In 2007/08alone, 1,302 incidents of sexual offendingby 10–15-year-olds were recorded – 29of which were committed by 10-yearoldchildren 373 . Separate figures drawn bythe NSPCC from all but one of the UK’spolice forces show that children under 18committed 1,065 sexual offences in theyear ending March 2008. 374369Womankind UK (2007)370Womankind UK (2007)371This does not include the total number ofpermanent exclusions in primary and specialschool settings372DCSF (2009)68367Cawson and Loretto (2000)368Duncan (2004, 2006); Francis (2005); Renold,(2002, 2003); Ringrose (2008)373Statistics (2004–08), Youth Justice Board374NSPCC (2010). Figures obtained underFreedom of Information Act

Sexualisation of Young People Review375Gangs, sexualisation andsexual violenceIn gangs, rape and sexual assault isincreasingly becoming the weapon ofchoice. Assaulting a girl is used not onlyto assert power over the girl herself,but also over those who associatewith her. The growing threat of sexualviolence also means that girls areseriously affected by gang activities;regardless of whether they are directlyinvolved themselves.Girls also talk of feeling increasinglypressurised by magazines, musicand the fashion industry to presentthemselves in a highly sexual way.They tend to respond to this pressureeither by over-sexualising themselvesfrom an early age or by developing amore ‘masculine’ persona which, in thegang context, means they often foundthemselves in dangerous situations. 375Pornography andsexual aggression“All this push to get women to buy into pornand its values…is it really empowering? Ifit was, wouldn’t it be empowering for allwomen?” 376‘Angela’, female prostituteEvidence points to a link betweenexposure to pornography and ‘sexualcallousness’, as well as a decrease infeelings of guilt, repulsion and disgust.Prolonged exposure increases thelikelihood of consuming material thatdepicts either potentially ‘harmful’ or whatthe UK government labels ‘extreme’ 377sexual behaviours such as violent sex andbestiality. Researchers point to a numberof negative consequences linked to theconsumption of such material:“Dispositional changes include diminishedtrust in intimate partners, the abandonmentof hopes for sexual exclusivity with partners,evaluation of promiscuity as the naturalstate, and the apprehension that sexualinactivity constitutes a health risk. Cynicalattitudes about love emerge, and superiorsexual pleasures are thought attainablewithout affection toward partners. Theinstitution of marriage is seen as sexuallyconfining. Increasingly, having a family andraising children is considered an unattractiveprospect.” 378A study of over 800 subjects aged 18 to26 found that 87 per cent of young menand 31 per cent of young women usedpornography, and that 67 per cent and49 per cent thought pornography wasacceptable. There was a clear link betweenthe use and acceptance of pornographyand risky sexual attitudes and behaviours,substance abuse and non‐maritalcohabitation values. 379 However, highpornography use is not in itself anindicator of high risk for sexual aggression.But people who are already predisposedto violent activity and who also score highfor pornography use are much more likelyto engage in sexual aggression. 380In other words, where a person alreadyhas a propensity towards violence,that propensity may be heightenedby the presence of sexually aggressivepornography.375ROTA (2007)376Walter (2010)377McGlynn, Ward and Rackley (2009)378Zillman (1989)379Carroll and Padilla-Walker et al. (2008)380Malamuth, Addison and Koss (2000)69

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewThe Confluence ModelThe Confluence Model of sexualaggression shows how a numberof factors work together withpornography use to predict levelsof sexual aggression. Pornographyconsumption therefore contributes‘significantly to the prediction of sexualaggression both as a main effect and ininteraction with other factors’. 381Mean sexual aggression3812.22.01.81.61.41.21.1.8LowPornography UseLowMediumHighMediumHighRisk for sexual aggression based on GH x HM x ISHostile masculinity (HM) describespersonality traits linked to aggression,including insecurity, defensiveness,hypersensitivity and a hostile/distrustfulattitude to women.Impersonal Sex (IS) describes apromiscuous, non-committal attitudetowards sexual relations.General Hostility (GH) refers totraits such as callousness and lack ofemotion, which increase the likelihoodof developing HM and IS.As the figure shows, the risk of sexualaggression is highest for those that scorehighly for GH, HM and IS, and who arealso heavy consumers of pornography.Malamuth and Vega agree that there is asignificant correlation between exposureto pornography and both actual, andattitudes to, sexual aggression. 382 This isbacked by a further study involving 515men, which found a strong associationbetween rape and rape proclivity andthe use of all forms of pornography.The strongest links were with hardcorepornography featuring scenes ofviolent rape. Soft-core pornography waspositively associated with the likelihoodof sexual force and non-violent coercivebehaviour, but negatively associated withthe likelihood of rape and actual rapebehaviour. 383These conclusions are supported by arecent literature review, 384 which identifiedconsistent and reliable evidence thatexposure to pornography is related tomale sexual aggression against women,385and while the association is strongestfor violent pornography, it is still reliablefor non-violent pornography. It should benoted, however, that researchers have alsoidentified a circular relationship wherebythose men who are considered as highriskfor sexual aggression are more likelyto be attracted to sexually violent mediaand more influenced by it. 386In a critical review of the literature onpornography and links with violence,Itzin, Taket and Kelly (2007) conducteda critical analysis of experimental studiesdisputed by Fisher and Grenier (1994).The experimental studies were saidby Fisher and Grenier to have failedto confirm that violent pornography isassociated with anti-women thoughts andacts, citing inconsistent findings due tomethodological and conceptual limitations.In the wider review of evidence of harm382Allen et al. (1995)70381Malamuth and Vega (2007)383Boeringer (1994)384Flood (2009)385Flood and Hamilton (2003)386Malmouth et al. (2000)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewto adults relating to exposure to extremepornographic material Itzin, Taket andKelly concluded that there is evidenceof negative psychological, attitudinaland behavioural effects on adults whoaccess this material. This included beliefsthat women enjoy or desire rape; lackof empathy with rape victims and apreference for extreme material; andbehavioural effects such as aggression inthe laboratory after exposure.Itzin, Taket and Kelly conclude that sexualexplicitness per se (as Malamuth (2003)argues) does not have harmful effects;but when a message is presented withina sexually explicit setting it may havea different effect than if the messagewas presented in a non-sexual setting.This subconscious processes wherebymessages in pornography becomeembodied and engendered with arousaland orgasm live on in feelings and fantasiesthat are deeply embedded and muchmore difficult to remove. 387It should also be noted that most studiesinvolve adult subjects, although there isevidence to suggest links between violentpornography and aggressive behaviour inyounger viewers. 388 A US study of boysand girls aged 11–16 found that greaterexposure to R- and X-rated films waslinked to greater acceptance of sexualharassment. 389 Another study wherethe average age of participants was 14found a correlation between frequentconsumption of pornography and thebelief that it is acceptable to hold a girldown and force her to have sex. 390Child sexual abuse“It would be unrealistic to assume there isno correlation between the sexualisation andobjectification of children and their beingsexually abused. ...children are portrayed, andtaught to act, as sexual beings. Why shouldit surprise us if those that wish to abusechildren use this to legitimise their actions?”NSPCC 391Child sexual abuse lies at the extremeend of the spectrum of consequencesof sexualisation. Nevertheless, it affects avery significant number of children. Oneestimate 392 puts the number of girls inEngland who have been sexually abusedat 1.1 million and the number of boys at490,000. Another suggests that as many as2 million under-16s – and one in five girls– is a victim of ‘sexual abuse or violence’. 393Figures from the US show that disabledchildren are three times more likely to besexually abused than able-bodied children;figures in the UK are thought to bebroadly similar. 394Recent figures from the NSPCC show thatover 21,600 sex crimes were committedagainst under-18s in 2008/09. 395 Morethan one third (36 per cent) of all rapesrecorded by the police are committedagainst children under 16 years of age. 396According to the Department of Health,child sexual abuse is greatly under-identifiedand reported: 72 per cent of sexuallyabused children do not tell anyone aboutthe abuse at the time. 397 While the majorityof abusers are male, the number of female391Evidence provided to the Review byTom Narducci, NSPCC (2009)392London Safeguarding Children Board (2008)393Cawson (2000)394Sullivan and Knutson (2000)387Itzin (2000)388Flood (2009)389Strouse et al. (1994)390Check and Guloein (1989)395www.nspcc.org.uk/whatwedo/mediacentre/pressreleases/2010_25_january_more_than_21000_child_sex_offences_recorded_last_year_wdn70725.html, retrieved February 2010396Home Office Statistical Bulletin (July 2006/12/06)397Caswon et al. (2000)71

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewsex abusers in Britain is estimated atbetween 48,000 and 64,000. 398 The majorityof those who display sexually harmfulbehaviour are adolescent males, with 25–40per cent of all alleged sexual abuse involvingyoung perpetrators. 399 Some clinicianshave noted that the sexualised imagesof children that are now more commonand easily accessible challenge the normsthat commonly forbid sexual interest inchildren. 400Victims of sexual abuse can experiencepost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),cognitive distortions, anxiety, depression,somatic concerns, disassociation, eatingdisorders, sexual dysfunction, impairedself-relatedness, behavioural difficulties,relationship problems, aggression,substance abuse, suicide, self-mutilationand indiscriminate sexual behaviour. 401One study suggested that almost threequartersof girl victims of ‘contact sexualabuse’ went on to experience PTSD, while57 per cent suffered major depression. 402The consequences of child sexual abusecan be devastating, and yet, from theevidence sessions that fed into this review,professionals working with victims ofabuse pointed out that in many cases,children who experience sexual abuseare not given access to support services,even following assessment. This is an issuethat will be explored more thoroughlyby the Taskforce on the Health Aspectsof Violence against Women and Childrenwhen it reports to the government inMarch 2010.Child pornography“When girls are dressed to resembleadult women, however, adults may projectadult motives as well as an adult level ofresponsibility and agency on girls. Imagesof precocious sexuality in girls may serve tonormalize abusive practices such as childabuse, child prostitution and the sexualtrafficking of children.” 403It is a widely held view that the use ofchild pornography must be consideredand understood as “…one practice withina repertoire of child sexual abuse” and notas an isolated issue which can lead to childsexual abuse. 404There is very little experimental researchon the effects of viewing images of childabuse. However, in a study that sought toexamine this by using adult actors thatlooked like young girls (so-called ‘barelylegal’ pornography), the findings showedthat exposure to such pornography ledto stronger mental associations betweennon-sexual images of children and wordsrelated to sex. 405 This suggests that viewingsexualised portrayals of children couldlead to viewers making these associationseven when children are not beingsexualised.An issue of concern that has been raisedby experts is that the sexualisation of girlscould potentially contribute to a marketfor images of child abuse. The APA reviewon sexualisation notes that there is anew trend for ‘grooming’ children on-linewhereby paedophiles join on-line teen398Lucy Faithfull Foundation (http://lucyfaithfull.org)72399www.nspcc.org.uk/WhatWeDo/MediaCentre/MediaBriefings/Policy/media_briefing_sexually_harmful_behaviour_wda33252.html400Emma Rush – What are the risks of prematuresexualisation in children. Quoted in Tankard Reist(2010)401Briere (1991)402Jones and Ramchandani (1999)403APA (2008)404Kelly and Regan (2000)405Paul (2005)

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewchat rooms and seduce girls intoperforming sex acts for money in frontof the camera. 406 This specific form ofexploitation is tackled in the UK by theChild Exploitation and Online Protection(CEOP) Centre.Exposure to sexualised images of childrenand child pornography could potentiallyincrease a child’s vulnerability to sexualexploitation and abuse. Sexual images ofchildren may have the effect of normalisingchild sexual abuse. During the AustralianConference of Child Abuse and Neglectin 2003 it was reported that exposureto X-rated pornography was a significantfactor in young children abusing otherchildren. 407 In her research on how14–16-year-olds present themselvesonline, Jessica Ringrose made the pointthat young girls, inspired by the hypersexualisedportrayals of women aroundthem, are styling themselves in overtlysexually provocative ways for theconsumption of other young people.What we are seeing on social networkingsites and in ‘sexting’ is, effectively, childrenthemselves producing child pornography. 408As academics in the field have pointedout, modern technology “has transformedthe political economy of all pornography,making it possible for almost anyone tobe producer, distributor and consumersimultaneously.” 409Tink Palmer, Internet Watch Foundation,noted in an evidence session for thisreview that she had encountered severalcases where young people were groomedto consume child porn by sex offenderswho had made initial contact in on-linechat rooms. Her experience is reflectedin research findings that suggest thatgrowing numbers of adolescents arebeing convicted of possession of childpornography. 410 In accord with thesefindings are the results of a New Zealandstudy that reported that among offenders,the largest group trading in internetchild pornography were aged between15–19. 411406Eichenwald (2005)407Stanley, et al. (2003)408Ringrose (2008)409Kelly and Regan (2000)410Moultrie (2006)411Carr (2004)73

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewConclusionThe evidence set out in this documentsuggests that there is broad agreementamong researchers and experts in healthand welfare that sexualising childrenprematurely places them at risk of avariety of harms, ranging from bodyimage disturbances to being victims ofabuse and sexual violence. 412Sexualisation devalues women andgirls sending out a disturbing messagethat they are always sexually available.It creates false expectations for girlstrying to live up to unrealistic ‘ideals’, andfor boys in terms of how they think agirl should be treated. It increases selfobjectificationand limits the aspirationsand choices that girls feel are open tothem. Sexualisation lowers importantbarriers to child sexual abuse, andundermines healthy relationships,increasing the likelihood of violenceagainst women and girls.There is both empirical researchand clinical evidence that prematuresexualisation harms children. Thereis, however, a clear need for furtherempirical evidence in the form of alarge-scale longitudinal study to look indetail at how living in a sexualised cultureaffects both boys and girls as they growand develop.There are several reasons why suchevidence does not yet exist. First, largelongitudinal studies require carefuldevelopment and significant funding:in Australia, the federal governmentspent two years debating whetherthe National Health and MedicalResearch Council should fund sucha study. Second, such a study wouldhave to overcome considerableethical obstacles with regard tobreaches of family privacy and the riskof further sexualising child participants.Finally, many of the mechanisms throughwhich sexualisation is occurring arerelatively new. Only recently have webegun to see psychologists and othersocial scientists making a concertedeffort to address the issue.So, we need more research.Nevertheless, we should acknowledgethat the research and evidence fromchild experts and clinicians gathered inthis report points clearly to the fact thatsexualisation is having a negative impacton young people’s physical and mentalhealth, and helping to normalise abusivebehaviour towards women and children.In 2007 the Department for Children,Schools and Families published itsChildren’s Plan 413 , aimed at makingEngland ‘the best place in the worldfor children and young people to growup’ and which highlighted the needto reduce the risk to children frompotentially harmful media content.To do this, we must first accept thatsexualisation, as evidenced in thisreport and in similar reports from theUS and Australia, is harmful. Only thencan we begin to develop strategies forhelping our young people to deal withsexualisation and create spaces wherethey can develop and explore theirsexuality in their own time and in theirown way.412413412APA (2007); Coy (2009); Malamuth (2001); Tankard-Reist (2010)413The Children’s Plan: Building brighter futures, DCSF (2007)74

Sexualisation of Young People Review8. RecommendationsIntroductionI believe that reviews like this oneshould not only raise awareness anddefine the issues, they should also lookat possible solutions and ways forward.Throughout the course of my work onthe review, some people have suggestedthat the problem of sexualisation is socomplex and so endemic that it will bepractically impossible to bring aboutreal change. I don’t believe that this isthe case. Sexualisation is undoubtedlya complex and multi-factorial issue, butsocial change is always possible, as longas people are sensitised to the need forthat change to occur.The recommendations outlined beloware derived from the main themes thathave emerged from the review. Theyhave evolved through consultations withprofessionals who work on the frontline in relevant areas and they have beeninformed by those working with thepracticalities and logistics of governmentpolicy. What is required is a joint effortby parents, teachers, professionals,clinicians, advertisers, retailers and policymakers. For the greatest social changecomes not from addressing one aspectof a problem but from the cumulativeeffect of many people acknowledgingtogether that change needs to happen.1) Education andschoolsi) Promoting gender equality in schoolsSchools have a vital role to play, togetherwith parents, in helping young people todevelop healthy relationships, managetheir emotions, and challenge thebehaviour of some young men towardswomen and girls.School staff report that they do nothave the skills or confidence to addressgender equality. They need to be awareof the significant impact of gender onexperiences within school; and to knowhow to identify and address aspects ofthe school culture which discriminateagainst women and encourage or justifygender inequality, sexual bullying andharassment. I believe there is a need for agreater emphasis in initial teacher trainingand continuing professional developmenton gender awareness and gender-basedvolence. I recommend that:• All school staff should have trainingon gender equality.• Staff who teach Personal, Social,Health and Economic (PSHE)education and/or citizenship shouldbe given specialist training andongoing support to address theseissues through the curriculum.75

Sexualisation of Young People Review76High levels of sexist bullying in schoolssuggest that schools must do moreto meet the ‘Be healthy’ and ‘Stay safe’outcomes of Every Child Matters, 414 tofulfil their duty to promote well-being andto safeguard their pupils. There is evidencewhich suggests teachers do not feelconfident to challenge the discriminatoryattitudes and behaviours that underpinviolence against women and girls. Teachersshould therefore be given a much greaterlevel of support and guidance. I thereforerecommend that:• The Department for Children,Schools and Families (DCSF) issuesstatutory guidance for schools ongender equality, in order to raise theprofile of the issue. The new guidanceshould be comprehensive, including:how to address gender equality andviolence against women and girls inthe school Gender Equality Scheme;the school ethos; in anti-bullyingpolicies; safeguarding strategies; thewider curriculum; staff training; andthe services and information thatschools provide.• Schools should ensure that allincidents on sexual bullying arerecorded and reported separately toother forms of bullying.ii) Statutory Personal, Social, Health andEconomic (PSHE) education and Sex andRelationships Education (SRE)As part of the Violence Against Womenand Girls consultation, I recommendedthat PSHE education, which includesSRE, become a compulsory part ofthe curriculum. Ministers have alreadyindicated that this is their intention. SREprovides important opportunities forchildren and young people to develop thelanguage and skills they need to be safeand to understand personal relationships.SRE should begin in primary schools andcontinue throughout secondary school.414www.everychildmatters.gov.ukIt should include setting personalboundaries and understanding what is safeand appropriate touching and behaviour. Itshould also look at issues like body imageand violence in relationships and aim tohelp young people develop an awarenessof the gap between pornography and realsexual relationships. It is imperative thatall children receive this level of educationand guidance including children withlearning difficulties, who often miss outbecause of their special educational needs.It is also important that teaching staff areequipped to deliver high-quality teachingabout personal relationships which tacklessexualisation and that responds to therealities of children and young people’slives. I therefore recommend that:• Clear reference is made tosexualisation, gender stereotypes andpornography within the Departmentfor Children, School and Families’revised Sex and RelationshipsEducation (SRE) guidance which iscurrently out for public consultation.• Practical ‘How To’ guidance ontackling sexualisation is disseminatedwidely to schools throughTeachernet, the PSHE Association,the Sex Education Forum and otheragencies. This would pull togetherillustrative material of good practice;demonstrate how sexualisation canfit within the existing curriculumincluding SRE, PSHE education,Citizenship and Media Studies; anddetail what resources are availableand links to relevant organisations.• New SRE resource materials aremade available for teachers whowork with children with specialeducation needs and learningdifficulties.In many schools, effective work is alreadyunder way in the areas of violence againstwomen and girls and gender equality.This includes lessons given as part of the

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewPSHE and citizenship curricula, lessonsgiven in other subjects, assemblies andother school activities. However, there isstill more that could be done in primaryschools. I therefore recommend that:• Primary schools should makespecific reference to the influenceof the media on body image andpersonal identity. This could formpart of a planned new area oflearning, ‘Understanding PhysicalDevelopment, Health and Wellbeing’,and would help equip primaryschool children with tools tounderstand and interpret the imagesand messages they see in the media.Almost all primary schools and a growingnumber of secondary schools are usingthe Social and Emotional Aspects ofLearning (SEAL) programme to supportchildren’s emotional wellbeing. I thereforerecommend that:• A module on gender equality,sexualisation and sexist/sexualbullying be developed as part ofthe SEAL programme. This shouldinclude discussion of body image andobjectification.iii) Media literacy and encouragingactivismWhile there are many organisationsworking to address the media literacyneeds of the UK population, efforts todate have been fragmented, with little orno co-ordination at either strategic oroperational level. As a result, resourcesmay be failing to reach those in most needor to achieve the desired outcomes.I welcome the government’s desire toboost young people’s media literacyskills. 415 Any media literacy programme415Secretary of State for Children, Schools andFamilies, Ed Balls. House of Commons HansardMinisterial Statements for 14 December 2009should equip young people with thecognitive filters to critically examine andchallenge the media portrayal of bothmen and women. It should addressconcepts such as air-brushing of imagesand the cult of celebrity, and be linked toeducation on safe internet use.Alternative media outlets such as blogs,webcasts and magazines or ‘zines’distributed on the web could provide auseful forum for teaching and encouragingyoung people to critically examinethe sexualised or hyper-masculinisedimages presented by popular media andmarketers. By offering young people achance to create their own content, thesechannels can promote a powerful sense ofvalidation and ownership.I therefore recommend that:• Media literacy should not only betaught through PSHE educationbut also through English and drama,the arts, history and citizenship.A ‘whole school’ approach to medialiteracy would reduce the burdenon PSHE education, ensure thatrelevant links are made in othersubjects and effectively mainstreamgender stereotyping throughout thecurriculum.iv) Working with young people outside ofmainstream educationIn recent years the integration of youthwork into other children’s services hasmoved from a universal service to anincreasingly ‘problem’ orientated targetedone. However, there’s a great deal ofpositive work that can be done withyoung people, not because they are seenas deficient, or victims, or needing to be‘fixed’ but as part of more general antisexistand gender equalities-based workwith boys and girls. I recommend that:77

Sexualisation of Young People Review• Increased funding should be madeavailable for staffing, provision andtraining of existing youth workersso that they feel confident andsufficiently skilled to have discussionswith young people around sexuality,sexist and sexual bullying and genderinequality. More materials are alsoneeded to support youth workers todevelop such work.v) Digital literacy and the internetWhile the internet brings unprecedentedopportunities for children and youngpeople to learn, develop and enjoy, it alsobrings risks. Children – and their parents– need education to understand andnegotiate those risks. At the same time,steps should be taken to make the virtualworld as safe as possible. I thereforerecommend that:• The UK Council for Child InternetSafety (UKCCIS) should besupported to further develop itscurrent online resource centre whereparents can access internet safetyadvice. Strategies should be simpleand practical, and link to parents’existing life and parenting skills.From meeting with parents, I appreciatethat expecting them to take completeresponsibility for their children’s digitalliteracy is both unrealistic and unfair. Ourapproach to improving digital literacy mustbe two-pronged, and I recommend that:• Digital literacy is made a compulsorypart of the national curriculumfor children from the age of fiveonwards, and that age-appropriatematerials are made available to pupilsat every stage of their education.Pro-anorexia (pro-ana) and pro-bulimia(pro-mia) websites advocate andencourage the perception of eatingdisorders as lifestyle choices ratherthan serious psychological disorders.They often provide tips on how to lieto doctors, which foods are easiest tovomit up and advice on initiating and/ormaintaining anorexic or bulimic behaviour.I recommend that:• The government should work withinternet service providers to blockaccess to pro-ana and pro-miawebsites.vi) Positive role models for childrenChildren – especially girls – need positiverole models to help challenge genderstereotypes and encourage them todevelop their self-esteem based onaptitude and accomplishment, not physicalappearance. I would like to put togethera working group of inspirational workingwomen to help identify what we cando to help this generation of teenagersrealise their potential and shape policy inthis area.An initial project for the group couldbe a short film featuring a dozen or soinspirational women talking about theirachievements, which could then bedistributed to schools or made availablefor download. Schools could be invited tocompete for a visit from one of the groupmembers, or the chance to gain workexperience with them. Several high profilesports and business women have alreadyagreed in principle to be involved.A similar scheme for boys could challengethe hyper-masculine ideal and providealternative role models. The White RibbonCampaign, for example, already runsworkshops where boys can explore issueslike gender stereotyping and sexualisation.Such workshops could be funded so thatmore schools have access to them.78

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewFor both boys and girls, there are obviousopportunities for promoting positiverole models in the run up to the 2012Olympics. The ideal would be to workwith a range of people, from sport,entertainment and the world of business.As part of the government’s long-termcommunication strategy to tackle violenceagainst women and girls, I recommend that:• A schools campaign is developedwhich promotes positive rolemodels for young men and youngwomen and challenges genderstereotypes. The campaign shouldbuild on the positive work alreadybeing undertaken in schools byorganisations such as the WhiteRibbon Campaign and Womankind.• Schools encourage girls to valuetheir bodies in terms of their physicalability by encouraging them toengage in athletic and other extracurricularactivities. Schools shouldpromote this work by linking itto the 2012 Get Set educationprogramme (run by the LondonOrganising Committee for theOlympic Games). There is a clear linkhere to one of the core values ofthe Olympic/Paralympic movement– demonstrating respect for oneselfand others.vii) Support for children who have beenabusedEvidence indicates that children whoare abused are more likely to displayinappropriate sexualised behaviour.Currently, too few children are beingtreated for the psychosocial consequencesof sexual abuse; it is not until they start toact inappropriately that their behaviouris noticed and addressed. Teachersand other professionals do not alwayshave the training and skills needed toidentify the early signs of abuse and offerappropriate support.During the evidence sessions thatinformed this review, professionals workingwith abuse victims and teenage sexoffenders pointed out that in many caseschildren who experience sexual abuse arenot given access to support services, evenafter an assessment. We must providepsychological support for every child thathas suffered at the hands of an abuser,not rely on voluntary bodies or wait fora child to start ‘acting out’. Therefore,I recommend that:• Local Authorities must be heldaccountable for treating victims ofchild sexual abuse and ensure thatspecialist services receive adequatefunding for the treatment of childrenwho have suffered abuse.• One-to-one confidential helpin school/college from a trainedprofessional such as a psychologistshould be made available to everychild and young person.2) Media andawareness-raisingi) A national campaign to tackle teenagerelationship abuseThe government strategy, Together we canend violence against women and girls, notedmy recommendation to run a campaignaimed at challenging the attitudesand perceptions that lead to violencewithin teenage relationships as the firstphase in a broader cross-governmentcommunications strategy/campaign.I have worked with the Home Office toinform the development of the TeenageRelationship Abuse campaign, whichwas launched in February 2010. I alsorecommend that:79

Sexualisation of Young People Review• A specific campaign pack isdeveloped for primary andsecondary schools which they canuse to exemplify and build on issuesarising from the national campaign.This campaign should not be a ‘oneoff’ but be run annually, allowingschools time to prepare activities andlesson plans.ii) A working group to address thesexualisation of women and girls by themediaSince so much of the sexualised contentto which children and young people areexposed comes via the media, there isa clear need for a forum where this canbe monitored, discussed and addressed.I recommend:• Setting up a working group ofhigh profile women in broadcastand print media – for example,TV commissioners, presenters,producers, journalists – togetherwith academics to monitor andaddress gender inequality in themedia. This group should meetmonthly and work with thegovernment to help it implementits international obligations (seepage 20) to tackle unbalancedportrayals and the projection ofnegative and degrading images ofwomen in the media.iii) Media awardsIt is apparent that there is a lack ofaspiration and ambition amongst a largenumber of Britain’s teenage girls. I wouldlike the sexualisation working group toalso influence policy and establish whatcan be done to help this generation ofteenagers aim higher. The media might bemore likely to provide positive portrayalsof both girls and boys if their efforts wereacknowledged and rewarded. I thereforerecommend:• The establishment of a media awardthat promotes diverse, aspirationaland non-sexualised portrayals ofyoung people.iv) Support and guidance for parentsI believe that parents should be giveninformation and support to educatetheir children about the issues raised inthis review. The Teenage RelationshipAbuse campaign could provide a usefulstarting point. Directgov (the official UKgovernment website for citizens) will carryinformation for parents, and this shouldbe developed, maintained and signpostedwithin government communicationsbeyond the lifespan of the initial campaign.During the course of this review, manyparents have told me that when theysee sexualised merchandise aimed atchildren, or inappropriate imagery beingused in advertising, they are not sure whothey should complain to. Is it retailers,manufacturers, Local Authorities, the PressComplaints Commission, Ofcom, theASA, or their local MP? It can be difficultto know who to turn to. I thereforerecommend that:• The government launches an online‘one-stop-shop’ to allow the publicto voice their concerns with an onuson regulatory authorities to takeaction against irresponsible marketingwhich sexualises children. This willalso help inform future governmentpolicy regarding the sexualisation ofyoung people by giving the publicand parents a forum to raise issuesof concern.80

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewParents also have an important role to playin challenging gender stereotypes, teachingtheir children what is acceptable behaviourand language and helping set appropriatepersonal boundaries. Initiatives need to bedeveloped that encourage parents to talkto their children about these issues and,where necessary, give them the tools to doso. I recommend that:• The government includes informationon body image, self-esteem, eatingdisorders and e-safety in its proposed‘Positive Parenting’ booklets forparents of older children and youngpeople.v) Advertising and magazinesIncreasingly, media messages are beingdelivered via the internet, with companiesspending millions on developing interactiveadvertisements on their commercialwebsites. These adverts and ‘advergames’can be targeted at children or containoffensive content and yet are currentlyunregulated. I recommend that:• The government recognises thework being carried out by theAdvertising Standards Authority andsupports it in taking steps to closethis regulatory loophole by extendingthe existing standards to includecommercial websites.Evidence suggests that even briefexposure to airbrushed images can lead toacute body dissatisfaction. To help combatthis, efforts to raise levels of media literacyshould be accompanied by initiativesaimed at encouraging society to take amore critical and questioning approachto the harmful perpetuation of unrealisticideals. I therefore recommend:• The introduction of a system ofratings symbols for photographsto show the extent to which theyhave been altered. This is particularlycritical in magazines targeting teenand pre-teen audiences.The stereotyped – and often sexualised– images of women that appear onposters and billboards point to a doublestandard whereby images that would beunacceptable in a school or workplaceare deemed acceptable for public display.Realistically, there is no way of preventingchildren and young people from seeingthese images, so I recommend that:• The content of outdooradvertisements is vetted by localauthorities as part of their genderequality duty to ensure that imagesand messages are not offensive onthe grounds of gender.vi) Music videosSexually provocative music videos arecommonplace and easily accessible bychildren on TV and on DVD. Section 1.20of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code statesthat: ‘Any discussion on, or portrayalof, sexual behaviour must be editoriallyjustified if included before the watershed,or when children are particularly likely tobe listening, and must be appropriatelylimited.’ 416 Yet sexual posing and suggestivelyrics are found in many music videosshown before the watershed. In thecase of DVDs, music videos escape thestatutory classification required for othertypes of content by virtue of a loophole inthe Video Recordings Act 1984. 417416Ofcom Broadcasting Code (2009)417Office of Public Sector Information, VideoRecording Act 198481

Sexualisation of Young People ReviewI therefore recommend that:• Broadcasters are required toensure that music videos featuringsexual posing or sexually suggestivelyrics are broadcast only after the‘watershed’.• The current gap in the regulatoryprotection provided by the VideoRecordings Act 1984 be closed,either by removing the generalexemption for ‘works concernedwith…. music’ or by lowering thethreshold at which exemption isforfeited. Proposals to lower thethreshold at which music videoslose their exemption are currentlybefore Parliament 418 and should besupported or even strengthened.vii) Video on demand services 418Although the new regulations relatingto video on demand services operatingfrom the UK represent a step in the rightdirection, it is debatable whether theamended Communications Act offerschildren sufficient protection from potentiallyharmful content. In particular, the Act onlyrequires service providers to apply accesscontrols (such as credit card payment) tomaterial that ‘might seriously impair thephysical, mental or moral development ofpersons under the age of eighteen’.Ofcom, which regulates UK-based videoon demand services, has stated 419 thatexplicit images of real sex betweenconsenting adults designed to sexuallyarouse the viewer are not likely toseriously impair under-18s. DVDscontaining this kind of content areclassified ‘R18’ and can only be purchasedin a licensed sex shop. Yet, according toOfcom, the same material can be freelyprovided via video on demand.I therefore recommend that: 420• Regulation of UK-based video ondemand services is strengthenedto ensure that they do not allowchildren to access hardcorepornography. Proposals toachieve this are currently beforeParliament 420 and should besupported.viii) Computers and networked gamingParent often feel under pressure topurchase the latest computer and videoconsole games for their children. Although18-rated games only make up a smallfraction of the total number of games onthe market, many of the most high profileand best selling releases are targeted at anadult audience. Most responsible parentswould not allow their young childrento watch an 18-rated film, yet manytake a different attitude when it comesto 18-rated games, which are equallyinappropriate in their content and stylefor a young audience. The latest gamingconsoles also provide young people withaccess to the internet, and parents areoften neither aware of this increasedaccess nor know how to censor theinformation that children receive.While many games consoles offer parentalcontrols, few parents are aware of how toset these up. Parents have a responsibilityto speak to their children about thecontent of games and to be aware of howtheir children are using games consoles.However, many parents have told me theywould like to see games consoles soldwith access controls already switched on.I therefore recommend that:82418Digital Economy Bill, amendment 246419Statement on the Ofcom Broadcasting Code –Section Two: Harm and Offence ‘R18 Materialand its equivalent’ pp108 – 124, May 2005420Digital Economy BIll, amendment 251B

Sexualisation of Young People Review• Games consoles are sold with aseparate ‘unlocking’ code, whichpurchasers can choose to input ifthey wish to use or allow accessof the console to adult and onlinecontent.• This idea could be extended to‘child friendly’ computers and mobilephones where adult content isfiltered out by default.3) Working withbusinesses andretailersi) Corporate responsibilityThere are signs that some manufacturersare prepared to listen to the concernsof those working to safeguard children.Numerous companies have withdrawnproducts from sale following campaignsin the national press, and the NSPCC isworking with businesses to encouragethem to look at the implications of makingand/or selling products that contributeto sexualisation and objectification.I recommend that:• The government supportsthe NSPCC in its work withmanufacturers and retailers toencourage corporate responsibilitywith regard to sexualisedmerchandise.• As a first step, guidelines should beissued following consultation withmajor clothing retailers and parents’groups so that a broad consensus canbe reached with regard to what isappropriate for different age groups.ii) ‘Lads’ mags’Many parents have complained to meabout the sexually explicit imagery andstraplines featured on the covers of so-called ‘lads’ mags’. These are often stockedalongside magazines aimed at teenagers oreven comics in high street newsagents andsupermarkets, flouting the retailers’ existingvoluntary code of magazine placement.In accord with this, during an evidencehearing session a spokesperson from thehuman rights organisation Object madethe point that:“ ….pornification impacts on how boysand men are encouraged to view and treatwomen, with far-reaching implications forgender inequality and violence againstwomen. The links between pornification,discrimination and violence against womenhave been recognised at the internationallevel by the United Nations Convention toEliminate Discrimination Against Women(CEDAW), which calls on States to takedecisive action to tackle the objectificationof women and girls. This requires anoverhaul of media regulation to move awayfrom inadequate self-regulatory voluntaryguidelines.”I therefore recommend that:• The existing voluntary code forretailers regarding the placementsof ‘lads’ mags’ be replaced by amandatory code, allowing customersto report retailers who continue toplace such magazines at children’seye-level and/or next to publicationsaimed at children and young people.• ‘Lads’ mags’ should be marked clearlyas recommended for sale only topersons 15 and over.iii) RecruitmentA report released by the Departmentfor Work and Pensions 421 shows thatjob centres are routinely advertisingvacancies at escort agencies, lap-dancingclubs, massage parlours and TV sexchannels. In 2007-08, Jobcentre Plus421www.parliament.uk/deposits/depositedpapers/2008/DEP2008-3155.doc83

Sexualisation of Young People Reviewadvertised over 350 vacancies in the adultentertainment industry, including onesfor topless and semi-nude bar staff. Inallowing this to take place, the governmentis promoting the normalisation of thesetrades as viable career choices. I thereforerecommend that:• The government overturns itsdecision to allow vacancies for jobs inthe adult entertainment industry tobe advertised by Jobcentre Plus.4) Researchi) A multi-disciplinary approach tosexualisationA multi-disciplinary approach, bringingtogether psychology, media studies,neuroscience and sociology wouldhelp to give a rounded picture of thevarious factors and offer a more holisticunderstanding of all the variables at play.I therefore recommend:• The establishment of a newacademic periodical and an annualconference series focusing solely onthe topic of sexualisation.ii) Improving the evidence baseA great deal has already been writtenon topics raised in this review, fromnewspaper editorials to scholarly journals.While there is strong preliminary evidenceto support a link between exposure tosexualised content and unhealthy beliefsabout sex and relationships and attitudesthat support sexual coercion, there isalso a clear need for further research.I therefore recommend that:• Funding be made available forresearch that will strengthen theevidence base. There is a particularneed for longitudinal research;research into the impact ofsexualisation on black and minorityethnic groups, gay and lesbiangroups and disabled populations; andcarefully designed ethical researchinto the impact on child populations.• Funding for trend research intoteenage relationship abuse and thefrequency of sexual bullying andabuse.• Clinical outcome research should befunded and supported to find themost effective ways to identify, assessand work with the perpetrators andvictims of child sexual abuse.• A detailed examination of medialiteracy programmes should becarried out jointly by the DCSF andthe Department for Culture, Mediaand Sport (DCMS).Specific topics for research could include:possible links between sexualisation andchild sexual abuse; child pornography andsex trafficking; the influence of portabledevices on risky behaviour and levels ofexposure to inappropriate content; therisks faced by younger children and thosewith special educational needs online;the prevalence and impact of ‘sexting’and cyber-bullying; the changing medialandscape; and public attitudes towardsviolence against women and girls.84

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Sexualisation of Young People Review10. AcknowledgementsResearching and writing this reviewhas been one of the most interestingand thought provoking journeys of mycareer. I have been very lucky to havethe support of a great team behind meto make the task of collating, reviewingand writing up this work possible. A bigthank you to Steven McDermott andLouise Bell for helping me wade throughseemingly endless reams of research;and to academics like Jessica Ringrose,Katherine Sarikakis and Maddy Coy for theconstructive feedback and input.I am very grateful to the members of theVAWG Advisory Group for their valuableinsight into the role that schools andteachers can play in promoting genderequality and preventing violence againstwomen and girls. Thank you also tofront-line clinicians and those working inchild protection like Sara Delaney, PeterJohnson, Holly Elsdon-Smithers, DavinaJames-Hanman, Tom Narducci and all themembers of the steering group for theirinvaluable input, help and advice.A very special thank you to RhysScudamore and Trystan Dafydd, whosetireless work and assistance throughoutmade this project not only possible but agenuinely enjoyable working experience.I am especially grateful to both JacquiSmith and Alan Johnson who had theinsight and bravery to recognise that thesexualisation of young people is an issuethat needs be addressed and discussed,and who decided to get the conversationstarted by commissioning this report.Finally, and very importantly, I’d like tothank all the children and young peoplewho have helped shape and inform thisreview by taking part in focus groupsand research studies and by sharing theirexperiences so generously – and in thecase of my little daughter Jessica, forreminding me that the way she sees theworld around her will inevitably shape theway she sees herself…100

When you have finished withthis publication please recycle itThis publication is printedon 50% recycled paper© Crown copyright. February 2010. Ref. 299136.ISBN: 978-1-84987-186-0