Bye Buy Childhood
The Mothers’ Union has submitted a petition to Prime Minister David Cameron, calling on the Government to prohibit sexualised media and marketing to children under 16 years of age.
The petition of more than 18,500 signatures was presented to No. 10 Downing Street on 14 March by Rosemary Kempsell, worldwide president of Mothers’ Union, and Margaret Beringer, a trustee, along with supporters of the Christian charity’s Bye Buy Childhood campaign.
The campaign also attracted cross party support from within Parliament, with MPs Helen Goodman, David Morris, Fiona Bruce and Jim Dobbin taking part in presenting the petition.
Ms Kempsell said, ‘We are delighted that the Government has already taken action to tackle the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood through the Bailey Review. We would like to see this Review make strong recommendations to Government to ensure childhood can remain a precious time free from commercialisation’.
The news comes as renewed political pressure mounts to prevent children aged five in school being taught sexually explicit material in state schools as part of the curriculum.
Speaking after the event, Helen Goodman MP said, ‘The Mothers’ Union is at the forefront of a really important campaign to support families. I’m giving the Bye Buy Childhood campaign my total support’.
The campaign comes as the Christian Institute (CI) stepped up its lobbying against government approved sex education materials being pushed into primary schools.
Spearheading its report, called Too much, too young, CI spokesman Mike Judge said, ‘Most parents would be deeply upset if these materials were used with their primary-aged child. If public bodies believe these resources are suitable for young children, there is clearly a problem with their judgement and more control needs to be given to parents’.
