We have huge successes to announce!
Our recent #rapemags campaign (highlighting displays of womens’ magazines that always feature rape or child abuse headlines on their front covers next to children’s comics and sweets) has received massive media attention and positive industry responses! Headlines in children’s eye line and at till points this week include: ‘The MUM who had SEX with her own SON,’ (‘That’s Life’ magazine) and ‘TIED UP and RAPED AT 7, I had to have 40 stitches’ (‘Chat’ magazine). These are among many other shocking front covers used as sales tools for profit this week. How can children understand this? How do parents explain this while buying grocery?
We are delighted to announce that the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has agreed to update its guidelines for retailers to include the display of these ‘ladies’ magazines. This is a fantastic result for Child Eyes and means that the same guidance now applies for these magazines as for ‘lads’ mags’: they should be displayed out of sight of children. You can now quote BRC guidelines when you ask shops to be more responsible with displays around children.
We are also thrilled to report that Landmark Wholesale Ltd is supporting our campaign and advising its 2000 national retail members to display inappropriate magazines out of sight of children.
We are also very happy to announce that due to your hard work contacting Morrisons the supermarket has agreed to undertake a review of displays of magazines and newspaper merchandising “with the aim of reflecting Child Eyes’ concerns.” Please help us keep up the pressure on Morrisons to make sure they follow through with this promise! If you think that the headline ‘TIED UP and RAPED at 7! I had to have 40 stitches’ alongside a childhood photo of a young girl is appallingly inappropriate for children to see next to sweets at the tillpoint in Morrisons today, please let them know!
Together we can make important changes and hopefully other supermarkets will follow suit.
Tweet @Morrisons using the hashtag #rapemags (and copy us in @ChildEyesUK)
You can write on Morrisons Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/Morrisons
Contact details for emailing Morrisons (and other supermarkets) are on our website here:
http://www.childeyes.org/useful-links/
See our Facebook page for examples of the magazine displays we are campaigning against and regular updates about how you can help the campaign:
https://www.facebook.com/ChildEyes
Other great news!
Our call for donations has been an overwhelming success! We gathered enough funding to enable us to make new connections and begin some very exciting work. Thank you to all supporters who donated. You can still add to the campaign here:
http://www.childeyes.org/
Our team met with Reg Bailey, CEO of Mother’s Union, last week. We discussed his Bailey Review into the sexualisation of childhood. We were able to show Reg all of the evidence we have collated including a huge roll of ‘sexualised wallpaper’ containing all of the images that children see everyday in shops.
We explained that we have tested the recommendations in the Bailey Review and they do not work. Profit always comes before children’s welfare for retailers. We were able to say how, after collating an enormous amount of evidence and constant campaigning, we believe that legislation is essential.
We are delighted to be meeting with Peter Wanless, CEO of the NSPCC, in early February. We hope to be able to share knowledge and support each other in the fight against the sexualisation of children. We know there are better ways to raise awareness of child abuse than shock for profit media.
We have another very exciting meeting coming up that we will be announcing very soon plus details of how you can join us for our Mary Poppins demonstration outside Parliament!
In the meantime, please listen out for us on the radio all week (BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC local radio) and see us on Question Time this Thursday night as well as Look East TV News!
Thank you so much for your amazing support, with your help we are making changes!
Kirsty, Kathy and Claire
ive said that those mags are like legal paedo porn for years