Policy paper

Letting children be children: progress report

Report of progress on the recommendations of the independent review of the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood by Reg Bailey.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Documents

Letting children be children: progress report

Details

The government promised to take action to protect children from excessive commercialisation and premature sexualisation, and said it would crack down on irresponsible advertising and marketing, especially to children, taking steps to tackle the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.

‘Letting children be children’ made 14 recommendations, of which only 2 were directed at government:

  • recommendation 4 - to consult on exemptions from the Video Recordings Act 1984 and 2010
  • recommendation 14 - to take stock of progress against the recommendations in his review in 18 months’ time

The other 12 recommendations were directed at businesses, trade associations and regulators.

This report, sets out for each of Reg Bailey’s recommendations, what has happened, what parents should be able to see, and the next steps that should be taken to see this progress continue and increasingly make it a part of everyday business practice and family life. For ease of reference, the exact wording of his recommendation is given at the start of each section.

A separate report of the ominbus surveys of parents and young people, that were used in the formulation of this report, is also available on this page.

Updates to this page

Published 24 May 2013

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