Letting Children be Children/Theme 4

by Reg Bailey

THEME 4

Making Parents' Voices Heard

"I think people need to know that they are not the only ones that feel strongly about unsuitable images for children and that it is a positive thing to express their views."

Parent, Call for Evidence response

Overview

• Parents have told us that they feel they cannot make their voices heard, and that they often lack the confidence to speak out on sexualisation and commercialisation issues for fear of being labelled a prude or out of touch.
• Business and industry sectors and their regulators need to make clear that they welcome, and take seriously, feedback on these subjects.
• Given the technology available, regulators and businesses should be able to find more effective ways to encourage parents to tell them what they think, quickly and easily, and to be transparent in telling parents how they are responding to that feedback.
• Once parents know that their views are being taken seriously, we would expect them to respond positively towards companies that listen to their concerns.

WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE

That parents find it easier to voice their concerns, are listened to more readily when they do, and have their concerns visibly acted on by businesses and regulators.

RECOMMENDATIONS

12.

Ensuring greater transparency in the regulatory framework by creating a single website for regulators. There is a variety of co-, self- and statutory regulators across the media, communications and retail industries. Regulators should work together to create a single website to act as an interface between themselves and parents. This will set out simply and clearly what parents can do if they feel a programme, advertisement, product or service is inappropriate for their children; explain the legislation in simple terms; and provide links to quick and easy complaints forms on regulators’ own individual websites. This single website could also provide a way for parents to provide informal feedback and comments, with an option to do so anonymously, which regulators can use as an extra gauge of parental views. Results of regulators’ decisions, and their reactions to any informal feedback, should be published regularly on the single site. ACTION: Regulators

13.

Making it easier for parents to express their views to businesses about goods and services. All businesses that market goods or services to children should have a one—click link to their complaints service from their home page, clearly labelled 'complaints'. Information provided as part of the complaints and feedback process should state explicitly that the business welcomes comments and complaints from parents about issues affecting children. Businesses should also provide timely feedback to customers in reaction to customer comment. For retail businesses this should form part of their code of good practice (see Theme 2, Recommendation 6), and should also cover how to make it easier and more parent—friendly for complaints to be made in store.ACTION: Businesses, supported by trade associations

Introduction

1.

We have been struck during the course of this Review by the apparent contradiction between the clear concern of many parents about the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood, and the fact that regulators, broadcasters and businesses receive few complaints about such issues relative to other types of complaint.

Figure 11: Level of parents' complaints compared with the number of unsuitable images and products seen by parents

• The Review’s omnibus survey showed that 40 per cent of parents had seen things in public places (for example, shop window displays or advertising hoardings), and 41 per cent had seen programmes or advertisements on TV, in the past 3 months that they felt were unsuitable or inappropriate for children to see because of their sexual content. However, only 8 per cent of parents had ever complained about such things.
• In the parental Call for Evidence, respondents were asked to think about when they had been out and about with their child/children over the last few weeks and if they had seen any images aimed at children that they felt were inappropriate for their child/children to see. Of the 846 people who answered this question, a substantial minority (330) said they had.When asked whether they had seen images aimed adults they felt were inappropriate for their child/children to see, of the 874 people who answered the question, 576 said they had.
• Respondents to the Call for Evidence were also asked about shopping for their child/children over the last year and whether they had come across clothes, toys, games, music videos or other products that were not appropriate for the age group they were aimed at. Of the 873 people who answered this question, 389 answered 'Often' and 388 answered ‘Occasionally’.

• Despite these concerns, when parents were asked whether they had made a complaint about something they felt was not appropriate for their child/ children to see, only 188 out of the 904 responding to the question said that they had.

Source: TNS Omnibus Survey, 2011 and Review Call for Evidence

2.

These relatively low rates of complaint may reflect the fact we have already observed (in the Introduction) that commercialisation and sexualisation issues are not the top—most priority for parents. Some business and industry contributors to this Review have certainly

interpreted a low level of complaints as a sign of low concern.Yet we have also heard from parents and other contributors to the Review about the barriers – real or perceived – which prevent some parents from making their views known. In the face of these barriers, and since the true extent of parental concern is not currently reflected in complaints statistics, it is simply not good enough for businesses and industry to say there is no real issue.

3.

Despite some good practice, notably from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the consumer complaints landscape is complex, confusing and inconsistent and certainly does not encourage parents to voice their concerns or make complaints. Our omnibus survey showed that the majority of parents (92 per cent) have never complained about things (for example, products and adverts) whether in public places, on television, on the internet, in a newspaper or magazine that they felt were inappropriate for children because of sexual content. This was because they have never needed to (43 per cent), they didn't think anything would be done (22 per cent), didn't know who to complain to (15 per cent) or didn't get round to it (13 per cent) (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Reasons parents did not complain

Why have you not complained when you have seen things you felt were inappropriate for children because of sexual content?

Source:TNS Omnibus Survey, 2011
Weighted base: 1199 parents of children aged 5-16 in UK

4.

Parents in our qualitative research and in the Call for Evidence also said that they thought the process would be difficult and time-consuming, or that complaining about these issues may make them look prudish, unreasonable or 'just making a fuss'. All of these factors contribute to a reduction in parents’ confidence in the willingness of organisations to listen to them.

5.

We found that there is definitely scope on the part of regulators and businesses to ensure that their own complaints mechanisms are easy to find and use, with information about what action is being taken as a result communicated in a timely fashion.

6.

The general difficulty in registering complaints seems all the more contradictory in the face of the consistent view among business contributors to this Review that they take customer feedback and complaints seriously and act swiftly, particularly when children's interests are involved. It appears, however, that this message is not being communicated persuasively to parents.

7.

Aside from actual complaints, there should be ways for parents' voices to be heard more generally on these issues and there is scope for businesses to capitalise on the power of instant feedback from their online activities. It is in all our interests, especially for businesses and regulators, to improve the ongoing dialogue with parents, to respond as meaningfully as possible to their views and to offer timely and transparent feedback, as a way of reassuring parents that it is legitimate to have concerns about such issues.

Knowing who to complain to–a complex complaints landscape

8.

The regulatory landscape relating to commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood is complex, leading to an equally complex complaints process for the different media, business sectors and issues involved. As can be seen from Figure 13, it is not easy for a member of the public to determine to whom they should complain and, although the regulators do make efforts to inform the public about their services, it can be no surprise that the public are sometimes confused.

Figure 13: Overview of the complaints landscape on taste and decency

Sources:Websites of regulators, Directgov (2)

Advertising

9.

Advertising regulation has perhaps the most straightforward system as the industry has a one—stop shop regulator in the form of the Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA regularly measures attitudes and awareness of its own brand and services, and its most recent survey in 2009 showed that nearly one in five people could spontaneously name the ASA and recognise its logo (Advertising Standards Authority, 2011 (3)), while an online Ipsos MORI survey in March 2008 found that the ASA was the best known media regulator (Advertising Standards Authority, 2008).

10.

Despite this good public awareness, the ASA still receives complaints about issues which are not within its remit. For example, in 2010, of the 1,863 total complaints connected with children received, 115 (6.1%) were outside the remit of the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority, 2011(1)).

11.

The ASA works hard to improve public understanding of its role and to help consumers navigate the complaints landscape. In our view, the ASA website was the most user-friendly of all the regulators’ sites we looked at (Advertising Standards Authority, 2011(2)). In addition to promoting its own services, the ASA website offers a good range of information about the roles and responsibilities of other regulators. Indeed, we found that there was more information easily to hand on the ASA's website about issues outside its remit – for example what to do about a complaint about a shop window – than we could find on other regulators' websites. We are also aware that the ASA works proactively to forward complaints to the relevant regulator if they are not in the ASA’s remit.

12.

In contrast, we feel that the complaint mechanisms for other sectors are more opaque.

Broadcasting

13.

Unlike the advertising industry, broadcasting does not have a one—stop location for complaints. Complaints can be made to a variety of bodies – for example, the programme maker or programme website, the channel or radio station, the broadcasting company or the broadcast regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom). In addition, for video-on-demand programming, complaints can also be made to the on-demand provider, the internet service provider or the regulator, the Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD). Complaints methods, processes and timescales are different for all of these bodies. This also means that complaints about a particular programme or issue are not all in one place, making it difficult to assess accurately the size and nature of viewers' reactions.

Retail

14.

There is no regulatory framework that covers taste and decency issues in retailing in the way that these are covered for the advertising and broadcasting industries. Legislation through the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 covers only misleading or unfair trading so the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards Officers, the main retail regulators, cannot consider issues beyond this remit. In extreme cases concerning indecency, there may be a case for complaining to the police: for example if a shop window display was pornographic. But the kinds of retail products and displays complained of by parents in our Call for Evidence, such as inappropriate slogans on childrenswear, or overtly sexualised poses of mannequins in shop windows, can only be brought to the attention of the retailer in question.

15.

The landlords of retail space, notably shopping mall owners, can also consider acting on customer complaints, and we are aware of one example of a shopping mall which insisted that a retailer change their window display as a result of customer complaints. However, we doubt that many parents would be aware of this as a possible avenue of complaint.

Print media

16.

In terms of print media, as set out in Theme 1, the use of sexualised pictures on the front page or cover of tabloid newspapers and magazines (for example, the so—called 'lads' mags') has raised concerns. Some parents are also concerned about the pictures of models or celebrities that fuel anxieties in children about their bodies, that is, that they do not conform to some arbitrary standard of beauty.

"With girls I think she sees the celebrities and she associates them with perfect... think that's how she's got to look. She's only 7 and she'll talk about someone being pretty and thin, and that's directly because of the magazines."

Parent, Review qualitative research

17.

Although, as a recent report for Demos (Darlington et al, 2011) points out, there is no clear evidence of a causal link between such images and harm to young people, it is clear that both parents and young people who contributed to the Review see such magazine coverage as contributing to issues such as low self—esteem and self—image. A number of the young people's and women's organisations who contributed to the Review also shared this view. Currently the only avenue of complaint on these issues is to the magazine itself or the retailer as this is not covered by the regulatory system for print media.The public campaigns currently running on both magazine display and airbrushing should help raise awareness of these issues. For example, Girlguiding UK's petition calling for labelling to distinguish between airbrushed and natural images received over 25,000 signatures.

"When I was eleven I read a teenage magazine for the first time and that's when it kind of clicked, 'I should be like this '.

Young person (Girlguiding UK, 2008)

18.

In terms of the editorial content of the print media, parents contributing to the Review reported very little concern although there were a few comments made about the age-appropriateness of the content of some teenage magazines. The main regulatory body for the print media, the Press Complaints Commission, is responsible for complaints on the editorial content of newspapers, magazines and their websites but its remit expressly excludes matters of taste and decency (Press Complaints Commission, 2011). Matters of taste and decency in print can only be raised with the publication in question, although complaints specifically about the sexual content of teenage magazines can be directed to the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP) but only after the complaints process of the magazine in question has been exhausted (Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, 2011). However, the panel has only ever ruled on three complaints, with its last adjudication in April 2005, and Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, has described TMAP as a "toothless watchdog".

Knowing how to complain – making it quick and easy to express a view

19.

When we asked parents in our Call for Evidence what would make it easier for them to complain about things they thought were inappropriate for their children, it was obvious that the quickness and ease of making a complaint was a big factor (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Making it easier for parents to complain

What would make it easier for you to complain about things you think are inappropriate?	Total
Knowing someone would take my complaint seriously	763
Knowing a website I could use to make a complaint	604
Knowing there would be a quick complaints process – no need to fill in long forms etc	533
Knowing a telephone or text number to make a complaint	302
Knowing an address to write to make a complaint	201
Nothing – I probably wouldn't complain more than I do now even if it was easier	33
Other	18

*There were 968 responses to this question: figures do not total 968 as respondents could select more than one suggestion. Source: Parental Call for Evidence

20.

When the Review team looked at several broadcasters’ and retailers’ websites, however, quickness and ease were typically not what we found.Although there were often 'Help' and 'Contact Us' buttons somewhere on the homepage, it was not clear that these sections of the website also dealt with complaints. It was not unusual for it to take five or more clicks from the front page of a website before any reference to making a complaint appeared. There were some notable exceptions. For example, the BBC has a large font reference to 'Complaints' on its homepage, and this leads through to its complaints mini—site where clear and full information is available, not only on how to complain, but also with feedback on the number and types of complaint received and the action taken as a result.

21.

New technology is making it increasingly easy for the public to provide, and businesses themselves to seek, feedback informally. In contrast to the formal complaints sections, these informal channels are usually very prominently placed on businesses’ websites. Examples were submitted to the Review of the various interesting and exciting ways in which businesses and consumers are using avenues such as social networking sites, blogs, and message boards to share views on programmes, products and services. Clearly, businesses are being very creative in how they approach informal dialogue with their customers, and both parents and children contributing to the Review thought that such creativity could usefully improve ease of access to formal complaints systems.

Ideas for making complaining easier

• "Complaints details on till receipts."
• "Anonymous feedback forms in store."
• "Every advertising poster to have a freephone number for complaints."
• "Something like the “How’s my driving?” stickers but for shop windows and posters."
• "Advisory messages before and after TV programmes with details for complaints, in the same way they sometimes give a phone number to call if you have been affected by an issue."

Source: Parents, children, young people and organisations, Call for Evidence responses and interviews

The feedback loop – demonstrating to parents that comments and complaints are taken seriously

22.

Our parental Call for Evidence showed that a lack of faith in complaints being taken seriously was the most important factor in those parents deciding not to complain (Figure 14 above). In their comments, respondents referred to a variety of reasons why they felt this, but two stood out.

23.

First, some parents who had previously made a complaint said that their experience of getting slow or unsatisfactory responses had put them off complaining again when they saw something inappropriate for their children.We understand that complainants are going to be disappointed if their complaint is rejected. But a timely and personalised response will make such disappointment easier to accept, and provide reassurance that someone has listened to one's views.

"I felt that I was a small fish in a big ocean swimming against the tide. I would have no effect."

"I have never felt it would make a difference if I did complain."

"I have often complained but nothing comes of complaints except polite letters acknowledging them."

"Even if the company agrees, they always cite policies, guidelines or rules from above preventing them from doing anything about it."

Parents, Call for Evidence response

24.

As noted above, the complex complaints landscape means that regulators and businesses take very different approaches to the way and the timescales in which they respond to complainants. The ASA, for example, provides a personal reply to every complaint explaining its decision and reasoning and consistently exceeds its turnaround performance targets for all case types (Advertising Standards Authority, 2011 (3)). In the case of Ofcom, most complainants will receive a standard response that refers them to the Ofcom website where all decisions are published. Only cases that Ofcom has taken forward for full investigation are published in the form of a detailed finding. Businesses could clearly reassure parents that they do indeed take these issues seriously, by continuing to find ways to improve the quality and timeliness of their response to complaints.

25.

The second barrier that parents contributing to the Review specifically mentioned was that they either felt, or feared being made to feel, embarrassed if they complained about issues of taste and decency. Interestingly, although the regulators who responded to the Call for Evidence commented on issues concerning the complaints process (for example, ease of complaint, transparency in complaints processes and so on), none picked up on the possibility that parents might fear ridicule or embarrassment.And while the retailers we spoke to for this Review clearly felt that a complaint direct to the store was the best avenue, some parents reported feeling intimidated or embarrassed by having to do this.

26.

Regulators and businesses could build parental confidence in raising issues of sexualisation and commercialisation in an overtly non—judgmental and reassuring manner by, for example, having clear statements on their websites welcoming such comments, reporting on such issues separately in their annual reports, and regularly seeking informal feedback from parents in a more dynamic way than they do currently. Such measures would help to convey a clear message to parents that it is OK' to say what they think and that other parents feel the same way: they are not the odd ones out.

"I felt prudish!"

"I feel that our society trivialises sex and treats people who complain about inappropriate imagery as prudish or old—fashioned. I don 't feel that I would be taken seriously."

"I was embarrassed to make a complaint!"

"My daughter doesn't like it when I complain in shops! Also, I don't want to draw her attention to inappropriate clothes etc."

Parents, Call for Evidence response

More people might complain... if you didn't have to speak to anyone."

Parents, Review qualitative research

27.

The Government's new consumer empowerment strategy 'Better Choices, Better Deals; Consumers Powering Growth' (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Cabinet Office, 2011) commits all government regulators to greater transparency, both in providing timely and clear feedback and data to consumers on complaints, and in supporting and nurturing greater customer feedback, including instant feedback through new technologies. It would be extremely encouraging if regulators would choose commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood as an area of particular focus when considering how to act on this new strategy, and this could be a very positive way of helping to overcome the barrier of feared social stigma that some parents clearly experience:

"We know that not everybody is a confident consumer which is why 'Better Choices, Better Deals' is about helping to support [them] in becoming more confident. ( ) We want regulators ( ) and public service providers to publish more of their data, especially on complaints. And above all we want this strategy to stimulate feedback, enabling consumers to be stronger by acting together."

Edward Davey, Minister for Consumer Affairs quoted in 'Better Deals, Better Choices'

RECOMMENDATIONS

12.

'Ensuring greater transparency in the regulatory framework by creating a single website for regulators. There is a variety of co-, self- and statutory regulators across the media, communications and retail industries. Regulators should work together to create a single website to act as an interface between themselves and parents. This will set out simply and clearly what parents can do if they feel a programme, advertisement, product or service is inappropriate for their children; explain the legislation in simple terms; and provide links to quick and easy complaints forms on regulators' own individual websites. This single website could also provide a way for parents to provide informal feedback and comments, with an option to do so anonymously, which regulators can use as an extra gauge of parental views. Results of regulators’ decisions, and their reactions to any informal feedback, should be published regularly on the single site. ACTION: Regulators

13.

Making it easier for parents to express their views to businesses about goods and services. All businesses that market goods or services to children should have a one–click link to their complaints service from their home page, clearly labelled 'complaints'. Information provided as part of the complaints and feedback process should state explicitly that the business welcomes comments and complaints from

parents about issues affecting children. Businesses should also provide timely feedback to customers in reaction to customer comment. For retail businesses this should form part of their code of good practice (see Theme 2, Recommendation 6), and should also cover how to make it easier and more parent—friendly for complaints to be made in store. ACTION: Businesses, supported by trade associations