Are Our Children Growing Up Too Quickly?

According to research published by the Department of Education, nine out of ten parents think their children are being forced to grow up too quickly! The researchers asked 1,000 parents various questions and found that over half thought the programmes and tv adverts shown before 9pm were unacceptable.

They also found that 60% of parents thought that some products advertised to children were inappropriate for their age.  Many parents felt they had to buy certain items for their children so to avoid them being "left out" but these products were not considered essential or appropriate, so peer pressure was an issue.

Areas of concern include:

• Clothes to be age appropriate and not small versions of adult fashion
• Sexualised content in music videos and early evening TV
• Pressure to buy non-essential items for their children so they don’t feel left out.

Findings from the survey show that:

• 40% of parents said they had seen things in public places (shop windows, advertising) that they felt were inappropriate for children because of sexual content
• 41 % said they had seen programmes or adverts on TV before 9pm that they felt were unsuitable or inappropriate for children due to their sexual content.
• Of those parents who had felt the need to complain about these issues but hadn’t, over 60% said that they had not done so either because they didn’t think anything would be done or they didn’t know who to complain to.
• Around half of parents felt that celebrity culture, adult style clothes and music videos are encouraging children to act older than they are.