4+Are+our+children+being+damaged+by+being+exposed+to+a+barrage+of+sexualised+images+and+products?

These concerns aren't new. This didn't just happen yesterday. Alarm bells began ringing several years ago when child-health experts, lobby groups and parents campaigned against the way advertisers and marketers were targeting children, from dolls wearing sexy outfits to padded bras for eight-year-old girls. The Senate Inquiry into the Sexualisation of Children in the Contemporary Media Environment was set up in 2008 and made several recommendations about the portrayal of children in print and advertising material and on radio, TV and the internet.
 * THEY can be our greatest achievement, our greatest hope, but are our children being damaged by being exposed to a barrage of sexualised images and products in a society many argue is now X-rated?**

Little, if anything, has been done, and now the issue has taken a far more sinister twist.

The phones at Bravehearts' Arundel headquarters run hot most days with disturbing stories of children being abused by adults.

But another deeply concerning trend is also emerging. Carol Ronken, a criminologist with the organisation for seven years, has noticed a growing number of concerns about children abusing other children in a sexual fashion. ``In the past, it was exploratory play amongst young kids, but there has been a big increase in children being more aggressive and threatening and sexual behaviour you would never expect from kids four to five years old,'' Ms Ronken says. She has even had childcare workers phone the organisation, which fights child sexual abuse, asking for help. ``We've had two centres in the last month with teachers saying, `Oh my God, how do we handle these kids?''' she says. ``It's not show and tell, it is assault. You don't want to label kids offenders they are too young but it is aggressive sexual behaviour.'' An Education Queensland spokesperson says they do not keep figures on inappropriate sexual behaviour in schools. Nor do police, as the ``offenders'' are legally too young to be charged, but they do have figures in New South Wales. Five years ago the Bureau of Crime Statistics recorded 13 sexual assaults committed by children. By 2008, it was more than five times that. Dr Joe Tucci, from the Melbourne-based Australian Childhood Foundation, says Victoria is in the grip of this increase, too. A decade ago Dr Tucci, a psychologist and social worker who counsels children showing inappropriate sexual behaviour, only saw a handful of cases. Times have changed. ``We started 10 years ago with 10 referrals a year. Nowadays it's up to 150. Ten years ago we were referred kids as young as seven involved in maybe pulling their pants down. Now it is penetrative acts, simulated or actual sexual acts and it starts at seven and eight,'' he says. In Queensland, there have been plenty of reports that have made it into the media spotlight. In September last year, three Year 1 and Year 2 boys were alleged to have sexually assaulted classmates in a primary school in Brisbane's north. The same year, on the southern flanks that melt into the Gold Coast, a five-year-old boy allegedly assaulted two other kindergarten children. Bravehearts counsellor Sam Vidler works with kids who display sexualised behaviour. ``One young boy was five and was going out of his way to act out sexually with other children,'' she says. ``There was no known cause he was from a good family.'' Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston has her own theories. ``It's a result of an environment highly suggestive and charged sexually kids live in an X-rated society now,'' Ms Johnston says.Dr   Tucci agrees. ``Kids are fed a diet of sexualised images on the internet, in magazines, on TV advertising and kids are sponges for this sort of stuff and mass exposure legitimises it,'' he says.

The warning signs are everywhere. On the Gold Coast, 12-year-old Olivia shows her mother Jan the latest bunch of photos uploaded on Facebook from a friend's recent birthday party, and Jan is left gob-smacked. It is a 13th birthday party and the girls are sporting mini-skirts, straightened hair, make-up and dominatrix-style platform stilettos. ``Who lets their kids dress like that?'' Jan asks. Jan is not conservative, but this concerned mother, who has asked her children not be named, has seen what this sort of highly sexualised peer pressure can do to a young girl first hand. Her 15-year-old has just emerged from a dark period that led to self-harm cutting in a bid for attention and acceptance. Belle says she did it ``to gain credibility and attention from the cool kids''. ``There's pressure to be popular. Well, the girls that are popular are sexually active,'' Belle says. Last year she was invited to a ``slut party''. Jan put her foot down and took her concerns to the headmaster who threw his hands up in impotent despair. ``It's not rocket science,'' says child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg. ``It's due to the saturation of sex in the media.'' Bras for kids, overtly sexual advertisements for deodorants, music video clips simulating sex acts during children's viewing times, 14-year-olds on runways, 13-year-olds on magazine covers and 10-year-olds made to look 16 in mainstream catalogues. Suri Cruise in high heels. Miley Cyrus lap-dancing her way out of her innocent alter-ego Hannah Montana. Sex sells. The 2008 Senate inquiry concluded that this was harming our children. Self-harm, anorexia and depression are on the rise at a younger age. Psychologist Amanda Gordon, author of the Australian Society of Psychologists' submission to the inquiry, argues there is good evidence these afflictions are related to the barrage of sexual images. ``We've always said these effects were related to the sexualisation of children,'' Ms Gordon says. ``I think the challenges are just too great for kids. It's hard enough dealing with your own bodily changes without having to be seen to be cool and to be cool nowadays, you have to be sexy.'' ``Sexy equates to ``having sex. Statistics show that 50 per cent of 16-year-olds are sexually active and that hasn't changed much in 10 years according to Dr Carr-Gregg. What does concern him, however, is the age at which they become sexually active. ``Ten years ago, less than 5per cent of girls were sexually active,'' he says. ``Now it's 24per cent. A lot of children are being sexualised earlier and it's not good for them.'' He says there are now three peer-reviewed studies, including one from the American Society of Psychologists, that prove the constant bombardment of sexual messages and marketing is affecting our kids badly. ``It creates eating disorders and anxiety it's proven,'' he says. ``There's a third parent in the household in terms of the media, the internet, videos and television.'' At a recent school principals' conference in Orange, NSW, Dr Carr-Gregg says he was told children aged 12 were getting brazilian waxes. In February, the British Government released its report into the sexualisation of young people and psychologist Linda Papadopoulos was asked to examine if the increased sexualisation of society contributed tothe increase in violence against women. Sexualisation was defined as: The imposition of adult sexuality on to children and young people before they are capable of dealing with it, mentally, emotionally or physically. The report concludes that not only had there been an unprecedented increase in the volume of sexual images, but that children were being portrayed with greater frequency in adult ways, while adult women were made to look infantile. ``This leads to a blurring of the lines between sexual maturity and immaturity,'' Dr Papadopoulos says. ``It effectively legitimises the notion that children can be related to as sexual objects.'' As our Senate inquiry was told back in 2008, sexualisation starts early, from a baby T-shirt that says ``I'm a tits man and the Bratz dolls that are ``Barbie prostitutes to black lacy bras and push-up bras for eight-year-olds.

Even Bonds puts out a ``soft cup'' padded bra for eight-year-olds, a move armchair psychologist and media commentator Amanda Gordon says is shameful. ``When it's Bonds it says it's reasonable and normal,'' Ms Gordon says. ``I'm saying shame, though take more responsibility for our girls.'' Clive Hamilton is the former director of the Australia Institute, which published the highly controversial report Corporate Pedophilia in 2007. Among other things, it took aim at a David Jones catalogue for sexualising children. He says Bonds is cashing in on the very debate. ``They know the girls have been sexualised and want to be like their big sisters,'' the professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University says. ``Is it designed to make an eight-year-old look like she has budding breasts? We have pedophile panic on one hand and marketing to make kids look more sexual on the other.'' All this comes just two years after the Senate report concluded that the ``inappropriate sexualisation of children in Australia is of increasing concern''. Several recommendations most relating to the Advertising Standards Board were made, but little has come of it. Mr Hamilton is disgusted. ``It was a whitewash,'' he says. ``They pretty much summed it up as moral panic from conservatives, which is funny, because the Australia Institute is a progressive think tank. ``It was an appalling inquiry report and ignored the mass of community concern from parents and grandparents.'' Marketing follows media, and many parents report it is difficult to find age-appropriate clothing once their daughters reach the tweens between eight and 12. Jody Cook, a Logan mother of two girls, had trouble last year finding a pair of boots for her seven-year-old. ``I tried to find a nice pair of white boots but everything was black and buckled with heels,'' the 36-year-old from Cornubia says. As a practising psychologist, Ms Cook has an edge on most parents, but nothing prepared her for her seven-year-old telling her last year that a classmate had had sex. ``Chelsea said one of her friends had sex with four boys and was boasting about it. I'd hope it was just talk, but I didn't expect to have the sex talk with her till she was 10.'' ==== [|Kids' mag links to sex site]  ==== ==== [|Sex in media harming kids] ==== ==== [|Smut for kids ban rejected] ====