A senior Tory councillor wants to see all “lads” magazines banished to the top shelves of shops as part of a campaign against children being exposed to sexual images.
Aveley councillor Wendy Herd has tabled a motion at next weeks full council meeting that calls for the council to ” entrust trading standards to work with and encourage members of the business community to ensure that best practice is adhered to with regard to the placing and distribution of material that is likely to cause offence.
“As this can include the display of sexually inappropriate magazines and media items, the Council request that checks be made as part of the Trading Standards risk based inspection programme, to ensure that such material is not displayed in positions where it can be clearly visible to younger children, be this through merchandising or at the point of sale.”
The motion follows on from a campaign led by mumsnet which has campaigned to banish magazines such as Nuts, Zoo and Loaded to the top shelves of retailers.
A spokesperson for the site said:
“There is widespread discomfort about the way retailers display magazines and newspapers that carry adult sexual images on their front covers. Nine out of ten respondents to a Mumsnet survey said that they do not want their children to see these images. 82% had seen sexually explicit covers displayed where children could see them, often on the lower shelves of newsprint displays.
“The worst offenders included local newsagents (cited by 76%), motorway service stations and petrol garages (52%), and WHSmith (31%). 68% said that it affected their overall perception of the stores in question.
Building on the momentum of Mumsnet’s ‘Let Girls be Girls’ campaign, in which Mumsnet successfully challenged retailers to ensure that their clothing ranges do not exploit or play upon children’s sexuality, Mumsnet will now be asking retailers to ensure that adult material is not displayed where children can see it, either by placing it on the top shelf or by using opaque covers to conceal the images.
When asked which publications regularly use cover images that are inappropriate for children, 81% cited Nuts; 76% cited Zoo; 65% cited Loaded; 62% cited the Daily Sport and 59% the Sunday Sport.
The motion will be debated next Tuesday at the council chambers at 7pm.
Does this women have any thing better to do – perhaps the economic situation, cuts to Libaries or Infastructure. No, another know it all trying to expand the nanny state.
So it is ok to have Demi Moore or a string of other famous celebrities on the front page of womens mags standing with their hands covering their modesty but not ok for the lads mags to have the same on theirs.
Every week there are umpteen mags with famous women in nothing but a hanky covering their bits on some exotic location but because it is aimed at women and tells them what bikini or make up they should be wearing on the beach in 2011 it makes it right does it?
I do think that the porn belongs on the top shelf but a lads mag i am not convinced on this one.
I can’t help but agree with the other two posts. They are lad’s mags not porn and they shouldn’t be treated as such. The porn mags are on the top shelf where they belong but these mumsnet types seem not to grasp human anatomy very well. Children don’t go around looking straight ahead or down, they look up too! I can remember having a sneaky look at the rude mags in the newsagents when I was a kid and I don’t suppose for one moment that kids of today don’t do the same if they are that way inclined! So mums and faux bothered political types, get a life, get real and leave the lad’s to their mags!