sexualisation of children

If you haven't been following the debate on sexualisation of children in contemporary media in Australia you may want to go here to see the senate report released June 26 2008. Or go here to jump straight to the recommendations.

This is an important debate particularly since one of the recommendations is the provision of comprehensive sexual health and relationshiups education for ALL australian children.


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NYDC Beauty Editor: Making thin lips look fuller is one of the easiest beauty problems to solve; the right makeup can work wonders on your pout. Tell us how you get soft, kissable lips. We want to know!!! ( advertisement from the 'Dolly Beauty Blog from Dolly online magazine) - I believe this type of blog/advertising/comment adds to the sexualisation of children as Dolly is directed at teens-and read by girls much younger - Lud)

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As an example here is an extract from Section 3: Effects of premature sexualisation of children:

Harms associated with sexualising and objectifying images

Body image and self-esteem
3.31 The committee received a considerable amount of evidence claiming that there is:
...[a] connection between the inappropriate sexualising of children and measurable harm, such as body image dissatisfaction, eating disorders, low self-esteem, poorer academic performance, depression and anxiety.[32]
3.32 The WFA, citing the APA report on the sexualisation of girls, submitted:
...exposure to ideals of sexual attractiveness contributes to body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders...[Sexualisation] was linked with three of the most common mental health problems in girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression or depressed mood.[33]
3.33 Ms Melinda Tankard Reist, Director, WFA, offered the following statistics on rates of eating disorders amongst Australian girls:
...we know that one in 100 adolescent girls in Australia develops anorexia, which is the third most common chronic illness for adolescent girls in Australia and the most fatal of all psychiatric illnesses. We know that one in five are bulimic...A study published late last year found that one in five girls aged 12 and 13 regularly uses fasting and vomiting to lose weight and that fasting was the most widely practised diet technique for girls aged 12 to 19.[34]
3.34 WFA believed that this was connected to the 'overemphasis of hyper-sexualised imagery of girls and women that makes young women feel particularly bad about themselves'.[35]
3.35 Ms Gordon reported that, in her experience as a practising psychologist, she had observed increasingly younger children presenting with body-image and self-esteem disorders, which she felt was the consequences of their 'overt sexualisation':
I see girls younger and younger becoming depressed. We see girls younger and younger being hospitalised with eating disorders and with concerns about their body and their self-esteem.[36]
3.36 Professor Elizabeth Handsley, Vice President, Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM), explained that, apart from the greater general exposure of children to sexual imagery, ACCM was most concerned about the potential harms arising from 'how children are represented to themselves'. She explained:
We look around and we see images of children that are sexualised, not in the sense that they make children into sexual objects in the normal sense, but more that they associate children with the trappings of adult sexuality. So they do not necessarily make children sexual objects but they engender a self-image within children that is associated with sexual objectification.[37]


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One more by me : How is this article from online cosmopolitan

"Miley 'regrets' topless photos But they've made her 'more relatable'

Miley Cyrus has spoken up about that topless photo, saying that the scandal has made her 'more relatable.'The 15-year-ol star of Hannah Montana appeared in Vanity Fair in march, topless but for a bedsheet covering her."I was embarrassed," Cyrus told Billboard magazine. "But it's also like, every career thing that I do can't be perfect, and sometimes my decisions are wrong. I think that just makes me more relatable."Cyrus admits that she regrets taking the photos."

How can it be that this 15 year old is getting the BLAME for what she did. - How abouit Vanity Fair coming out and saying " I am sorry that we sexualise children, we will never do it again" How about the photographer saying " I took a highly sexual photograph of a 15 year old - I will never do it again" - The lack of responsibility that people take for thier actions is just astounding!!!