Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo the sentiments expressed by Senators on all sides and I applaud Senator van Turnhout on the initiative she has taken in respect of this matter. I welcome the Minister and the comments she made. I congratulate her on the initiative she took prior to Christmas in respect of Retail Ireland. I presume this initiative is similar to the Mumsnet.com website in the UK, which goes by the tagline "by parents for parents". Mumsnet.com started a "Let Girls be Girls" campaign in the UK in early 2010 which "grew from Mumsnetters' concern that an increasingly sexualised culture was dripping, toxically, into the lives of children". It is stated on Mumsnet.com that:

The campaign aims to curb the premature sexualisation of children by asking retailers to commit not to sell products which play upon, emphasise or exploit their sexuality. Earlier this year, the campaign was extended to tackle lads' mags, calling on newsagents and supermarkets not to display them in children's sight.

I am not sure whether the latter forms part of the Minister's initiative or whether the focus is just on clothes. Perhaps it is something which might be borne in mind.

A number of statements on Mumsnet.com reflect what Senator Mary Anne O'Brien said. For example, one lady, Justine, said the following:

This is not about prudishness or hankering after some rose-tinted picture of childhood. It's about millions of parents - and many who aren't parents - knowing in their bones that there is something wrong with a society that tries to sell seven year old girls 4 inch heels, or t shirts emblazoned with "future porn star".
As parents we're told - often by our own kids - that we've just got to live with it, that the world has changed. But we don't have to - and our Let Girls be Girls campaign, the Bailey review [which was carried out in the UK and to which I will refer later] and the new retail code of conduct show the power ordinary people can wield when they speak out forcefully on forums like Mumsnet against the pornification of our culture.

Parent power really lies at the heart of this matter. One American psychologist is on record as stating that if parents did not go into stores and buy these types of products, there would be no market for them and if there is no market, there can be no product. Parents have a responsibility in respect of this matter and they cannot merely expect the Government or the Minister to act on their behalf. Responsibility begins at home with parents. Senator Mary Anne O'Brien is quite right to state that in America, where a subculture relating to this exists, many of the instances are of a proxy nature and involve parents. One particularly gruesome instance in recent years involved an eight year old in San Francisco whose mother had wanted to be a beauty pageant queen but had failed in her quest. She channelled all of her frustrated ambition in the direction of her child and even gave her botox injections. I am glad that San Francisco's social services department took the child into care. In my opinion, that parent should not have been anywhere near a child. There are many similar instances.

There is a website in the US, Toddlers & Tiaras, which is about the beauty pageant business and which the Minister should visit. There is a section on the website which is devoted to showing excerpts of the ten worst or most gross things which happened on the reality TV show of the same name. I was struck not by the exploitation of these children - some of whom were no more than two years of age and others of whom were still only babes in arms - and their being dressed up but rather by the reaction of their parents. I refer to their whooping and shouting "Good on you" and "Doesn't she look so beautiful". I thought, "What a sick society". Perhaps that to which I refer would be replicated here if we allowed it. When one of these pageants was run in Ireland last year, parents actually turned up to it with their children. One can blame the organisers and shout and roar about the hotel involved but the bottom line is that Irish parents attended the pageant with their daughters. These were not Americans, some of whom are mad. What a strange society obtains in America, particularly in the context of the number of subcultures that exist within it. We have a similar society here, albeit it on a far smaller scale.

If we, as legislators, the Minister or the Government can do anything about this matter, then our focus should be on the responsibility of parents. This matter should not be thrown back to the Government in order that it might legislate in respect of it. In that context, it should not be necessary to legislate.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh and I must have come across the same material when carrying out our research on this matter. The Senator referred to a 2007 study compiled by the American Psychological Association. I also wish to place on record something which that organisation noted, namely, that "sexualization has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, sexuality and attitudes and beliefs". The study also found that some of the possible ongoing negative effects include "low self esteem, poor academic performance, depression, and eating disorders such as anorexia". A study carried out in 2008 by Girlguiding UK and the Mental Health Foundation found that premature sexualisation and pressure to grow up too quickly are two "key influences" in the anxiety felt by girls. According to Dr. Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, "Girls and young women are being forced to grow up at an unnatural pace in a society that we, as adults, have created and it's damaging their emotional well-being ... We are creating a generation under stress." The current generation of adults has created this society or it has at least watched as it has developed.

I accept that the Minister may be fully aware of them but I take this opportunity to place on record some of the recommendations contained in the Bailey review. It is stated on Mumsnet.com that:

The Review makes further recommendations about the exposure of children to sexualised imagery. It proposes that explicit ads, music videos and TV programmes - described as a "wallpaper of sexual images that surround children" [that is a pretty apt way of putting it and one can even create from it one's own mental image] should be subject to tighter control, with age-ratings on music videos, and stricter enforcement of the television watershed.

It recommends that outdoor advertising featuring sexual imagery should not be displayed in areas near schools or playgrounds, and that parents should have a one-stop portal to enable them to complain about products, ads or services more easily. The review also proposes that internet users should have to make "an active choice over whether they allow adult content or not". I agree that people who use the Internet should be obliged to make that choice. If that happens, then perhaps those involved will stop and think.