Concern nappy ads encourage pedophiles May 25, 2008 02:07am
NAPPY television commercials featuring semi-naked babies have been criticised after claims they encourage pedophiles.
A parliamentary inquiry is examining whether it is appropriate to have unclothed babies in commercials after it was revealed they are the subject of regular complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB).
ASB chief executive officer Alison Abernethy said images of babies in advertisements for nappies, Pull-Ups, baby wipes and bath products has raised the ire of sections of the community.
"The nappy advertisements top the complaints in the category about sexualisation of children," she said. "Members of the community are concerned that those images will encourage pedophiles."
While the ASB dismissed the complaints, stressing the importance of giving advertisers the right to promote their products, the parliamentary inquiry into sexualisation of children is examining whether commercials featuring semi-naked babies are appropriate.
Inquiry chairwoman Senator Anne McEwen said recommendations in the committee's report, to be released next month, could look at restricting images of nude babies in adverts.
"There may or may not be a recommendation along the lines of whether the issue of using images of babies needs to be addressed," she said.
"The ASB sets its criteria and that's what they benchmark things against. If the feeling is that the ASB criteria are inadequate, it's something that needs to be looked at."
Ms McEwen said the complaints were reasonable and would be examined, although they were not the main focus of the inquiry, which dealt with sexualisation of older children, not toddlers.
"People are entitled to complain about what they see as inappropriate but, on the other hand, people are also entitled to have reasonably free access to the media," she said. "It could be in the report, but we didn't go into it in-depth about images that pedophiles may be able to use for their own gratification."
An advertisement for Huggies Pull-Ups, which features a toddler heading towards the toilet, was the subject of several complaints two years ago, Ms Abernethy said.
One complainant said: "In the ad, it shows a mother taking her toddler to the toilet and pulling off his underwear. The camera moves away when the underwear is millimetres away from showing the boy's private parts.
"I am disturbed when I think of the thrill a pedophile would get from this image," the complainant added.
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at http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23750501-2,00.html
