In another hit for the struggling tween magazine category, an Australian Institute report released on Monday, “Corporate Paedophilia”, says the phenomenon of tween magazines in recent years has seen the sexualisation of Australian children “in the interest of corporate profit”.
But associate professor of media studies at The University of Sydney, Catharine Lumby, refuted the claims to B&T, saying it is very concerning that authors are using sensational language and the term “paedophilia” to market a report.
“Using the term paedophilia is both unethical and irresponsible, because it is comparing marketing to eight and ten year-olds with sexual assault. It both cheapens and waters down a term that should only be used to represent serious misconduct,” she said.
Lumby also said in Australia there are very strict codes of conduct in regards to advertising and marketing to children. “Companies would simply not be allowed to get away with it,” she said.
Co-author of the report Dr Emma Rush responded by saying the paedophilia claim is purely meant as a metaphor to show how corporations are sexualising children without their consent. Rush also said there needs to be tighter regulations in regards to advertising to the tween market, and tougher restrictions on the content in magazines.
“The aim of the report is to raise awareness to this new issue, and to highlight that action needs to take place. We don’t want the situation in Australia to turn out like that of America – look at what happened with JonBenet Ramsay,” she said.
In the report Rush said marketing magazines to the tween market reflects both the increasing commercialisation of children’s lives, education and entertainment, and their earlier association into the popularised teenage world of fashion, sex and pop stars, and can lead to the early-onset of body image issues such as anorexia.
The report targeted Pacific MagazinesTotal Girl, Emap’s Barbie and ACP Magazines’ Disney Girl as the main offenders, saying much of the content of the three titleswas classified as “sexualising material”.
Sarah Cornish, editor of Pacific Magazines title Total Girl, was quick to reject the claims, saying she was both surprised and disappointed that Total Girl was connected with the report. “We were not contacted by the authors to offer a comment or lend our experience on the subject,” she said.
Cornish said Total Girl, which is aimed at 6-13 year-olds follows a strict editorial policy with regards to the appearance of girls and that they provide readers with a safe place to read and interact and learn. “In Total Girl’s case it is most often purchased by parents for their children,” she said.
In the latest readership and circulation figures, all titles in the tween category fell. Pacific’s Total Girl fell 11.24% to 80,066 in the latest circulation audit, NextMedia’s Mania fell 9.74% to 38,339, while ACP Magazines’ Disney Adventures and Disney Girl fell by over 23% and 18.7% to 38,251 and 28,241 respectively.
Meantime, retailer David Jones—which was also mentioned in the report—has publicly denied its advertising sexualises children, saying the allegations are defamatory.
