Report to highlight parent's concerns over children's access to mobile content
A review due out next month is expected to highlight that mobile phones are undermining the ability of parents to monitor their children’s access to the internet.
According to The Telegraph, the report; Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood, which was carried out by the Mothers’ Union for Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, will show that parents worry that through online enabled mobile phones, children are gaining access to inappropriate advertising and pornography.
Nine out of 10 parents apparently believe that their children are being forced to grow up too quickly as a result of increasing sexual and commercial pressures from the internet and television, says the report.
The review has also found that direct advertising through mobile phones was the marketing tool which angered parents most, followed by products linked to social networking websites that invited the children to follow a click through.
1,000 parents were consulted in order to compile the review, finding that 41% said that in the previous three months, they believed that there had been a growth in TV and advertising before 9pm, that they considered to be wrong for children as a result of their sexual content, while 40% claims that they had also seen window displays and outdoor adverts that were also inappropriate for children to view.