FIRMS WRECKING CHILDHOOD, SAY TEACHERS
By Rosa Prince Rosa.Prince@Mirror.Co.Uk 07/04/2007
GREEDY firms were urged by teachers yesterday to stop robbing youngsters of their childhood.
They were accused of sexualising children by encouraging them to wear provocative clothes, seducing them into eating junk food and pressuring them to become obsessed by image.
Now the NUT wants a government ban on all advertising in schools.
General secretary Steve Sinnott said: "We're letting youngsters down.
"They're the target of advertising messages so unhelpful they can damage their well-being. Child hood should be about education and enjoyment not exploitation. These things must end."
Mr Sinnott hit out after the NUT published a damning expose of the commercialisation of childhood, Growing up in a Material World.
It highlighted how firms exploit children's "pester power" to get parents to buy them expensive clothes and toys so they can stay "cool".
Pressure to develop the perfect body led to teenage boys taking steroids and girls developing eating disorders.
Accusing stores of having sold push-up bras for under-nines, the report said: "A disturbing aspect is the trend for pre-teenage girls to wear inappropriate and provocative clothes and make-up.
"This can send out dangerous messages and illustrates the pressure on children to be 'grown up'."
Calling for the ad ban, the document said industry's infiltration of children's lives was hindering schools to help children think for themselves.
It said: "Children should be protected from advertising aimed at enticing them or their parents to buy a particular brand."
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3 comments:
It is very very ture that children are being robbed of their innnocence and childhood. They all seem to want to grow up.
Where are the days where children just wanted to play all day, roll down the hill at the park, ride their bikes up and down the street just simply be and interact with one another...?
I recently came across some young girls dressing as though they are 18! Full make up, inappropriate clothing, spending hours straightening their hair and they were 10 and below!!!!
The boys were just as bad. Spent hours infront of the mirror doing some crazy hairstyles and then competing in who had the best designer gear and again they were 10 and below!!
What I just did not understand is the fact that these children were all Muslim.
I don't think its just the media and companies robbing youngsters of thier childhood but feel that parents seem to think its okay to allow it to happen in the first place.
Children learn form what they see that goes on around them. So if a mother for example dresses up with full makeup, wearing tight skimpy clothes, then the daughter is going to want to do the same.
If parents instead take control from the beginning, as children learn by example, then Inshallah we can protect our children Inshallah.
However if we let our children be exposed to mindless TV 24/7 and not educate our children in Qur'an and the Sunnah of our Beloved Prophet (PBUH) then we would have lost our children before we've even begun.
May Allah swt protect our children and give them Hidayah. Ameen
I don't know why things surprise me anymore (Sigh) I mean padded underwear for girls at george.
Its true children learn from what they see, I caught maymoonah sweeping the floor with a toothbrush the other day and she goes round wiping the walls with baby wipes.
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