From Mr Reg Bailey
Sir, - We at the Mothers' Union read with interest the column by
Canon Angela Tilby (Comment, 8 March) on
the "culture of choice" with which children are now confronted. The
article quoted Lord Williams's observations on the commercial
pressures that children face, and we would agree: families are,
indeed, facing increased pressure to consume, as childhood is today
a marketing opportunity of £99 billion in the UK every year.
We believe in giving families - parents and carers, and the
children they nurture - the tools and the confidence to manage this
commercial influence. The Mothers' Union's campaign to tackle the
commercialisation and sexualisation of children, Bye Buy Childhood,
is calling on the UK Government and industry to work with parents
to create a supportive and family-friendly climate where effective
tools and guidance are available to parents to use with their
family.
We address these issues in our publication Labelled for
Life: Managing the commercial world as a family, and offer
practical tips and suggestions on how families can navigate this
pressure together. This tool is "a valuable reminder that part of
our responsibility as parents and carers is to help our children
learn to navigate the pressures of the modern world, and that
developing a critical response to commercial pressures will help
give our children the freedom they need to grow" (Lord
Williams).
In my review for the UK Government, Letting Children Be
Children, I worked closely with the four main UK internet service-
providers (ISPs) to make enabling family-friendly parental controls
an active choice when setting up a new PC or laptop. I found a
consistent desire across the industry to work to ensure that
parents are able to protect their children online.
Phone companies, too, are working to ensure that parents
understand the risks and advantages the digital world offers
children, and how parents can best educate their children about
online safety.
The Mothers' Union believes most strongly that developing
resilience and confidence with our families, by enabling
age-appropriate safeguarding and building parental confidence to
talk to their child about the issues that they consider online
risks, will best equip children to manage an ever-changing
environment.
REG BAILEY
Chief Executive
Mothers' Union
Mary Sumner House
24 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3RB