Youngsters are exposed to porn and sexualised marketing on the internet, campaigners say Parents need much more help in protecting children from online porn, a review commissioned by the prime minister is to say.
The Bailey Review says parents should be able to buy computers, devices or internet services with adult content already blocked, rather than having to impose controls themselves.
The review, into the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, also calls for age-ratings on music videos.
It also suggests more advert controls.
It says this should keep advertising with sexual imagery away from schools and playgrounds.
The review was carried out by Reg Bailey, the head of the Mothers’ Union, and the findings are due to be published on Monday.
He describes the plethora of explicit adverts, videos and television programmes as a “wallpaper of sexual images that surround children”.
Mr Bailey says parents are worried about “the increasingly sexualised culture we live in”.
He says they need more support to protect their children and “help them deal with the pressure this brings”.
Mr Bailey said parents were concerned about heavily sexualised imagery in outdoor advertising as there was no way of avoiding it.
“It wasn’t as though these were something in a newspaper or in a magazine, they were in a public space. And parents felt that public space wasn’t as friendly as it might be towards families.
“So one of our key recommendations is to say that parents views should be heard very clearly when it comes to determining sexualised imagery and the usage of that in advertising messages in public space.”
Manufacturers and internet service providers could do a lot more to help parents block adult content from children including developing better ways of checking the age of users, the report says.
Mr Bailey is expected to say: “I have heard a lot of concerns from parents that their children can get easy access to pornography on the internet. Whilst most parents regularly check what their children are viewing online, and set up parental controls and filtering software, they remain concerned because they are not as internet savvy as their children.
“That’s why I am calling for a new approach where all customers have to make an active choice over whether they allow adult content or not. This is something internet service providers have told me is workable.”
Mr Bailey recommends music videos should carry age ratings and underage children should be banned from buying them.
The Advertising Standards Authority and broadcasters are being urged to pay more attention to parents’ views.
The government says it will implement all the recommendations and regulators and retailers have been told they have 18 months to clean up their act – otherwise legislation may be introduced.
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