Entries Tagged 'communication' ↓

There is an increasing trend for fashion houses to glamorise death. The obsession with beautiful dead women has seen a number of recent ad campaigns idolise death, murder and suicide in women’s fashion. Young girls are being told that you can even look sexy when you are dead.

Taking the theme of ‘dead women are sexy’, Gucci recently featured a new ad campaign shot in Marrakech which showed models lying lifeless in the desert sand.

More disturbingly are the more graphic ads which further suggest that the model’s demise has been the result of male violence. Ads like Duncan Quinn show a man in a smart suit who has clearly strangled a woman. She is wearing nothing but sexy underwear and is lying motionless on the bonnet of a car.

Another ad by Dolce and Gabbana (later banned in Italy) featured a woman being pinned down by a man while a group of men looked on (waiting their turn?) the scene looked like a gang rape, and yet it was actually selling shoes.

Author of Getting Real and Generation Next speaker, Melinda Tankard Reist is a long standing campaigner for the portrayal of sexualisation and violence against women in the media to be banned.

“All these images and messages make a mockery of global campaigns to stop the abuse of women. They feed violence, fuel violence and contribute to an environment which every day becomes more dangerous for women and girls” she said.

Now to suicide – The South Korean fashion label Lewitt recently engaged American photographer Ryan McGinley to make a video promoting their brand of clothing.

It featured Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw and was apparently inspired by Alice in Wonderland. However the clip depicts Kershaw jumping from a tall building rather than falling down something. Her climb to the top of the building, hesitation before jumping and free fall as she tumbles down over the building all feature multiple changes of wardrobe.

But Alice in Wonderland wasn’t climbing a very tall building with the intent of throwing herself off, oh no, she fell down a rabbit hole and it was an accident.

Adolescent psychologist and Generation Next speaker Dr Michael Carr-Gregg commented that it seemed like an odd concept for promoting fashion to young women in a country that boasts one of the world’s highest female suicide rates. Odder still, given that seven models have committed suicide in the last 2 years (4 by jumping), including South Korea’s Daul Kim who committed suicide in November 2009.

The data showed that 18.7 out of every 100,000 South Korean women committed suicide in 2008 while suicide rates in other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries remained stable (source: World Health Organisation 2008).

Julie Gale, founder of Kids Free 2B Kids suggested calling for a protocol where these themes are not used. Just like newspapers have an ethic of not reporting suicides. She went on to say that the Advisory Group on Body Image set up by Youth Minister Kate Ellis in March 2009, should be looking into advertising which depicts acts of self harm such as suicide as glamorous and something to aspire to.

At the time of the launch she said “The Advisory Group will help to develop a new Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image, and provide advice to the Government on a national response.”

“Young Australians are telling us loud and clear that they are concerned about negative body image and the impact that it has on them, their friends and the community,” said Ms Ellis.

“This is a very complex issue and the Government believes the most affective approach is to work in partnership with the media, health sector, fashion industry and young people themselves to develop a national approach to tackle negative body image in a coordinated and targeted way.”

Melinda Tankard Reist, when talking about suicide and body image said “now Lindsay Lohan, soaked in blood, is showing us you can still sell yourself as a sex object while threatening to kill yourself.”

She added “self harm is the highest cause of hospital admission for girls aged 13 to 19 in Australia. Should it be treated so lightly? Should it be seen as something you do if you want to be seen as hot and sexy? Branding yourself with blood as some kind of artistic statement?”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. Melinda Tankard Reist. Kids Free 2B Kids (Julie Gale)

The International Year of Youth is an opportunity to give young people a say in the world around them and how it is being shaped. This is reflected in the theme “Our Year, Our Voice”.

The 2010 International Youth Day celebrated on 12 August also marked the launch of the International Year of Youth. The theme for International Youth Day was ‘Dialogue and Mutual Understanding’, and reflected the value of dialogue among youth from different cultures as well as among different generations.

International Youth Day was celebrated at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York where they also launched the International Year of Youth with an event seen as a celebration of young peoples’ energy, imagination and initiatives. The UN recognised their important contributions to enhancing peace and development and saw the event is an opportunity for both the international community and the UN system to show their ongoing commitment to young people.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon said “Youth should be given a chance to take an active part in the decision-making of local, national and global levels.”

Key objectives for the International Year of Youth include:

• Increased commitment and investment in youth
• Increased youth participation and partnerships, and
• Increased intercultural understanding among youth.

It is hoped that schools and youth organisations throughout the world will use this year as an opportunity to guide activities with young people that are related to youth and their issues.

Some of the suggestions for activities include:
Educational radio show - Contact popular local/national radio stations to request a slot to have a discussion with distinguished individuals and youth.
Organize a public meeting or debate - to discuss young people’s contributions to global issues.
Initiate round table discussions – among adults and young people to promote intergenerational understanding.
Organize a youth forum – to exchange ideas and discuss cultural backgrounds in order to help young people accept others and popularize a culture of non-violence.
Organize a concert – to promote International Youth Day and the launch of the Year. Invite your local musicians and combine it with a panel discussion or invite a politician or policy maker to hold the key note speech.
Create an “info point” – about youth-related issues in the centre of town/village, at high schools, or at university centres.
Organize an exhibition – get permission to use a public space for an arts exhibit, which showcases the challenges of young people today or how young people are contributing to development.  Try to involve young people in the domains of culture, arts and music, to raise awareness on youth-related issues.
Write to your Minister of Youth – to inform him or her about the challenges young people face in their daily lives and to suggest solutions.

The International Year of Youth website has lots of information and material to support any ideas and activities. To use the logo for your event, read the guidelines for the logo and fill out the liability waiver form available for download on the site and check the International Year of Youth website for regular updates.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: International Year of Youth

The online classified ads website Craigslist set up by American Mr. Craig Newmark, which has classified advertisements all around the world including Australia has been accused of posting ads that sell sex. The ‘adult services’ section on his website is used by many people who deal in human trafficking and pimps who place ads which sell young people for sex.

One such girl (MC), aged only 17 years of age said ”I was first forced into prostitution when I was 11 years old by a 28-year-old man,” she wrote. ”I am not an exception.”

According to police and anti-trafficking activists the internet has now become the number one way to sell women for sex. It’s fast and easy for pimps and reasonably safe for those who pay for sex; they can now browse online from the comfort of their own home rather than combing the streets.

Of all the online sites that offer “adult services,” Craigslist is one of the most popular. It is regularly used by about 50 million Americans who can buy everything from antiques to toys and ads that provide service, jobs and gigs.

There online adult services ads make it the target of a nationwide campaign against internet prostitution. This campaign is being led by FAIR Fund, a Washington based non profit organisation that works to protect young people who are at high risk or have been exploited via human trafficking and sexual violence.

Andrea Powell, head of FAIR Fund called Craigslist ”the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking’’ and added “most of the young women we’ve worked with who have been exploited online talk about Craigslist.”

The revelations by girls who appear in these ads include the account of AK, who said she had been sold for sex by the hour at truck stops after running away from home.

After pressure and threats of legal action from prosecutors in 43 US states, Mr. Newmark has agreed to monitor the ads, however this is proving both difficult and a conflict of interest for Craigslist as the ‘adults services’ section of the website brings in about $U36million in revenue each year, with each ad costing $U10 to place, that is a lot of ads.

Connecticut’s attorney-general called for Craigslist to shut down its ”adult section” completely.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: The Washington Post, FAIR Fund

ThinkUKnow

ThinkUKnow is a website dedicated to protecting kids online. It shows you how to help kids stay safe and in control when using various forms of new media.

It gives teachers, parents and carers the tools they need to keep children safe while still letting them enjoy using emerging technologies. The site has free tools and resources including fact sheets and videos to download.

ThinkUKnow is an Internet safety program delivering interactive training through primary and secondary schools across Australia using a network of accredited trainers.

Created by the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, ThinkUKnow Australia has been developed by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Microsoft Australia.

School Presentations – Presentations are also available and they will come to your school and talk to parents, teachers and carers.
Fax expressions of interest to: (02) 6132 6063

Useful sections on the website include:

How Do Kids Have Fun? – explores how young people communicate with friends and family all over the world, access information for school work and develop their creativity. It looks at:
Instant Messaging
Gaming
Chat
Peer-to-Peer
Social Networking
Mobile phones
Blogs

How to Stay in Control – This section outlines some of the risks associated with the activities of young people online.
The site encourages adolescents to have fun online and with mobile technologies, but to always stay in control.

Just as you try to protect your child in the real world, you would also like to keep them safe in the online world. Helping to equip young people with online safety skills will help them to get the most out of the Internet and to stay in control whilst doing so.

Protect Your Computer – This section highlights some practical steps which you can take to protect you and your family online.

It is important that you safeguard your computer, devices and home networks. It is also important to practice safe online behaviour to minimise your exposure to online risks.
The website looks at:
Email safety
Firewall
Malware Protection
Updating computer operating systems
Shopping online
Protecting wireless networks

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: ThinkUKnow

Go into any young person’s bedroom now-a-days and you will find an assortment of electronic media scattered around the room. Many of these devises will be in operation simultaneously; the computer is on, the internet is connected, the iPod is playing, messages are being sent and received via the mobile phone and the TV is quietly playing away, just in case anyone glances over at it.

From their rooms teenagers are connected not only to friends but also to global networks through internet access, from the central hub of their bedrooms they conduct their social life, often well into the night.

A recent study “Electronic Media use and sleep in school-aged children and adolescents: a review” published in the journal Sleep Medicine by sleep medicine researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide has concluded that young people who have access to electronic media such as televisions, computers, internet, games and mobile phones in their bedrooms are putting their behavioral development at risk.

The research showed that the main reason for this seems to be because of the lack of sleep they get due to the fact that they continue to use these devises even after ‘lights out’. For some children this can delay sleep time by several hours, usually without their parent’s knowledge. Much of the action begins after 9pm and this means a shorter total sleep time. New media has now been linked to reduced time in bed and to sleep disturbances.

Dr Michael Gradisar, of Flinders University, noted that recent comparable studies in the US found that adolescents frequently used mass communication late into the night. 55% of US adolescents access the internet and 24% play computer games after 9 pm, while 30% of adolescents reported text messaging.

The American Academy of Paediatrics has suggested that children’s bedrooms ought to be “electronic media-free” rooms.

“Health and wellbeing of young Australians” published in March 2010 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated that adolescents need about 9 hours sleep each night. The report went on to say that “Sleep disorders and sleep deprivation have an impact on the health and wellbeing outcomes of young people by reducing their capacity to undertake normal everyday activities.” Thinking, emotional balance and behaviour are all affected by chronic sleep deprivation (Carpenter 2001) with the result being poor school grades and impaired social skills.

The publication went onto say that “communication technology, including TV, internet, newspaper and other media have shown to have an impact on young people and how they review themselves and their community and to inform their views on global issues. Young users are increasingly turning to the internet as a source of information, communication, socialising and entertainment (Gigli 2004).”

Another study conducted in Belgium by J. Van den Bulck (SLEEP 2007;30(9):1220-1223.)* looked at 1,656 children with an average of 13.7 years and found that “Mobile phone use after lights out is very prevalent among adolescents. Its use is related to increased levels of tiredness. There is no safe dose and no safe time for using the mobile phone for text messaging or for calling after lights out.”

The use of mobile phones, after parents have ensured that all other electronic media has been switched off, seems to be common place. The sending and receiving of SMS’s and practices such as “ringing” (interrupting the call before it is answered – which is a way of telling that person “I was thinking of you), “bombing” ( the number of times the phone rings signals what the caller is trying to convey) and sending “chain messages” to a number of friends, are nightly occurrences.

Many adolescents would have their parents believe that they need an array of electronic media as “sleep aids” and that these gadgets and applications help them to unwind and relax in preparation for sleep. However, research shoes that even as they sleep the interaction between media and sleep does not stop. Playing computer games has been shown to shorten REM sleep in adults and many adolescents report dreaming about what they saw on TV or in a computer game.

The Flinders University research team wants their findings to be used in developing guidelines on electronic media use by children, given that sleep is important for learning and memory, as well as having implications for emotional regulation and behaviour.

The researchers go onto say that lack of sleep and poor sleep quality have also been linked to lapses in memory, concentration, and poor academic performance.

“Considering the evidence to date … parents should be informed that simply having electronic media devices in the bedroom can negatively affect their children’s sleep,” they conclude.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: SLEEP 2007;30(9):1220-1223.

*The data used in this analysis were gathered by the Leuven School for Mass Communication Research with support from the Fund for Scientific Research (Flanders) and the Ministry of Welfare of the Flemish Government of Belgium.

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald by columnist Miranda Devine was a hard read; the very subject matter curdled the stomach and made the insides squirm in an effort to escape it.

The subject matter was paedophiles and how easily they gain both the trust of parents and access to the innocent children that become their victims.

The other disturbing aspect of the article lay in the fact that society doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge and address the horrors of child abuse in order to help protect the next generation, the innocent children, who are falling victim to an sexual, physical, mental and emotional abuse.

As Miranda points out, ‘how did we arrive at a circumstance in which a 56-year-old man is convicted in the NSW District Court this week of sexually abusing eight children aged from 12 months to 14 years, videotaping thousands of unspeakable crimes, and barely a comment is made?”

The trial in question was that of David Shane Whitby whose reign of terror lasted more than a decade, in which time he video-taped his despicable acts against innocent children. In one video he allegedly said “I love to molest children …. I am a child molester and transvestite … I have molested so many children”.

The list of charges read like an ‘R’ rated horror story and included 73 counts of sexual intercourse with a child aged between 10 and 14 years old. It is small consolation that he will be sentenced in September.

A police officer who works in child protection said ”they were poor single mothers doing it tough and they were conned by a predator … Whitby will be remembered as the worst paedophile in Australia’s history, in terms of number of victims, number of crimes and the extremely sick nature of the crimes … No one in child protection has ever seen anything like this.”

Traditionally the ‘family’ has formed the threads of our social fabric and yet because of changes in society during the last 40 years the social fabric that holds our community together is being ripped apart by society itself.

Gone are the days when the family was made up of a working father and a stay at home mother. Couples are marrying later and having fewer families. Today the term ‘family’ can be applied to step-parents, single parents, blended families, defacto relationships and same sex parents.

In essence change is good and these new lifestyle choices are merely a response to the world we now live in, but are they also unwittingly undermining the strength of the ‘family’ on which our society is built?

In the UK Sir Paul Coleridge, a Family Court judge, caused controversy last year when he addressed the Family Holiday Association and suggested that the state of marriage should be upheld and that those who destroy family life should be held accountable.

He described what he sees in court as a ”never-ending carnival of human misery … I have witnessed the damage done [to children] by the endless game of ‘musical relationships’, or ‘pass the partner’, in which a significant portion of the population is engaged”.

Sir Coleridge’s views might be considered old fashioned by some, but he had a point when he said “surely the test of any social change is whether it enhances people’s lives or makes them more miserable. And this is where I take issue with the modern view of the family. If it is so successful, why are the statistics for separation so large?”.
 
“More significantly, why are the family courts overwhelmed with cases involving damaged, miserable or disturbed children? How do other children, caught up in less serious separations, really feel? Do they relish the endless changes of partner, or adapting to a new step-parent and step-siblings?” he added.

So the question remains; how can our children be protected in a world where predators can easily enter their lives because of the breakdown in family values? If their parents cannot protect them, then who can?

How, we might ask ourselves, can a man like Whitby get so close to these vulnerable children?  The answer is ‘easily’ when you look at the recent case of a father who was awarded custody of his daughter, despite the fact that he has a known history of heroin addiction and sex offences.

He was given custody simply because the mother was even less able to protect and take care of her daughter than he was, as she had a string of shoplifting, drug and prostitution related convictions to her name.

The magistrate reasoned that “the father provides calmer parenting with more clearly set boundaries than the mother does,” adding that “a history of inadequate supervision combined with heroin and marijuana use create a serious concern that (the girl) may be neglected by her mother”.

Joe Tucci of The Australian childhood Foundation said “children shouldn’t ever be placed in a situation where the rights of the parents . . . override their right to protection,” he said.

“The decision should be about whether a child is safe or not, not which parent is the better to look after them.

As Miranda Devine points out “it is the community’s responsibility to rebuild social norms destroyed through the social revolution of the past 40 years.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald. Speech by Sir Paul Coleridge.

Dr Aric Sigman, psychologist and author of Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives and The Spoilt Generation is concerned that exposing children as young as 22 months to computers and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) actually impinges on their development rather than aids it because it is “subverting the development of children’s cognitive skills”.

Based the UK, Dr Sigman recently addressed a childcare conference, telling them “there is evidence to show that introducing information and communication technology (ICT) in the early years actually subverts the very skills that government ministers said they want children to develop, such as the ability to pay attention for sustained periods.”

In Australia it is almost a year since the Rudd government made laptops available to Australian school children. During that time there has been growing concern that their use is distracting students and making them under perform in exams.

Helen Walton from the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizen’s Association said “anything that offers children the opportunity to be distracted, they will be”.

Many young people already suffer from a poor attention span which in turn makes it difficult for them to listen to a teacher or follow through on even the simplest of tasks. It is feared that exposure to computers will be harmful to young children’s under developed brains.

“The big problems we are seeing now with children who do not read, or who find it difficult to pay attention to the teacher, or to communicate, are down to attention damage that we are finding in all age groups.”

Dr Sigman suggests that computers should “be introduced and used judiciously at much later ages – ideally at least age nine – or it can subvert the development of the cognitive skills and curiosity it was intended to foster and enhance,”

By the age of nine years old, computers can be used very effectively to help children’s learning, social development and health. A number of studies in the US show that age-appropriate software can help language development.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: The (London) Sunday Telegraph.  Dr Aric Sigman

Published in Journal Watch Psychiatry.

Lack of fear conditioning at age 3 years may signal future criminality.

According to a neuro-developmental hypothesis, dysfunction in multiple brain regions may be involved in subsequent criminal offenses.

This study investigated the hypothesis that children who poses poor fear conditionings at a young age may be at risk of subsequent criminal behaviour in their adult life.

1,795 children aged 3 years old from Mauritius were tested for their fear-conditioned response. 20 years later their criminal status was compared with these results. Fear conditioning was determined from their response patterns to several tones and a noxious sound.

When the participants reached 23 years of age researchers compared 137 participants who had property, drug, violence, or serious driving offenses with 274 non-criminal participants matched for age, sex, ethnicity, and social adversity (e.g., uneducated parent, single-parent families, separation from parents, overcrowding, poor maternal health).

Unlike the comparison group, the criminal offender group had not shown fear conditioning to the noxious sound at age 3 years.

Comment:
This may be the first-ever long-term prospective study to show an early deficit in autonomic fear conditioning as a predisposition to adult criminality.

This report does not indicate other possible long-term outcomes in children with deficient fear conditioning.

Early biomarkers of increased criminal risk might enable clinicians and parents to fashion environments that decrease negative outcomes and, perhaps, even enable some of these children to flourish. — Joel Yager, MD

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

SOURCE: Published in Journal Watch Psychiatry. 2010

At first glance it would seem that choosing Video Hits as a Media Partner for the recently held Australian National Youth Week made perfect sense, all teenagers are into music of some sort. Music crosses the great divide and is accessible to everyone; it can communicate on a level without barriers.

But when we see the latest music clip from American singer Kiely Williams “Spectacular” (The Sex was Spectacular) then the question must be asked: ‘Should Video Hits have been a Media Partner of National Youth Week?’ when it has been clearly shown that some music videos can depict the sexualisation of young people and have a deleterious effect on body image and self esteem, leading to increased risk of eating disorders.

Certain lyrics and imagery also perpetuate the myth that violence, sex, love and rape are all the same thing, where consent is irrelevant and aggression acceptable.

This latest offering by Kiely Williams glorifies a one night stand where rape is questionable. The lyrics are crude and confronting. She doesn’t even know the man’s name or if he used a ”rubber”. In the song being so drunk that you can’t remember anything seems to be an achievement, or at the very least nothing out of the ordinary, as she puts it; ”I was face down, ass up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off”.

The images in the video clip depict nudity and outfits that leave little to the imagination, to say nothing of the graphic dance moves. A video clip like this only perpetuates the rape myth that says it is OK because the girl is too drunk to say ‘no’.

A new book to be published in July by sociologist Anastasia Powell of La Trobe University, Victoria called “Sex, Power and Consent: Youth Culture and the Unwritten Rules” draws on the experiences of 117 young people as they talk about youth sex within popular culture, love, sex, relationships and agreeing consent. She develops a gripping context for understanding the ‘unwritten rules’ and the gendered power relations in which sexual negotiations take place.

Powell says the sexualisation or pornification of society – the preponderance of sexualised imagery in media, music and other popular culture – has done little to empower young women.

”Some things have improved in terms of women’s equality but we’re still hanging on to a whole range of gender norms; ideas about men, women and sex that still place young women in situations when they experience pressured or unwanted sex and sexual assault,” Dr Powell said.

Cyber safety expert and Generation Next Seminar speaker, Susan McLean says “sexting – the sending of naked images, almost always of young women, by mobile phone – and other inappropriate sexual behaviour is widespread in Australian schools. Boys and girls, but predominantly girls, are sharing pictures for no other reason than they can.”

McLean said that once the pictures – or in some cases videos – were out in cyberspace they were almost impossible to remove.

A national survey released on 19 April, “Changing Cultures Changing Attitudes” showed that:
• 13% of people still agree that women ‘often say no when they mean yes’
• 16% agree that a woman ‘is partly responsible if she is raped when drunk or drug-affected’
• 7% agreed ”a man is less responsible for rape if he is drunk or affected by drugs at the time”, and
• 34% of people still believe that ‘rape results from men being unable to control their need for sex’.

Minister Plibersek said the Rudd Government is spending $17 million on a social marketing campaign to promote respectful relationships among young people.

So, given the type of material Video Hits is airing, it is probable that the answer to the question : ‘Should Video Hits have been a Media Partner of National Youth Week?’ is a resounding “NO” – this is not the type of message we want to send to our youth during National Youth Week or at any other time.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

SOURCE: Anastasia Powell of La Trobe University, Victoria – “Sex, Power and Consent: Youth Culture and the Unwritten Rules”
VicHealth – “Changing Cultures Changing Attitudes A National Survey on Community Attitudes To Violence against Women”

It is becoming increasingly evident that children are being targeted by the media from a very young age. They are being encouraged to become consumers before they can walk, spell, read or write. How? Through advertising and strategically placed marketing campaigns.

Australian author and Generation Next speaker, Maggie Hamilton points out in her book “What’s Happening to Our Girls?” that “Material goods cannot replace loving, human interaction. Parents who get caught up in the need to shower their baby with new possessions end up passing these values on to their children, who grow up believing they’re nothing without brand-name clothes and accessories”.

This point of view is confirmed by Martin Lindstrom, global marketing expert “kids spend less time with their parents than with advertising and brands, so the ads have a major influence on the kids’ vocabulary and use of brand names”. (BRANDChild: Remarkable Insights into the Minds of Today’s Global Kids and Their Relationships with Brands. Martin Lindstrom with P.B. Seybold 2003).

 
All over the world campaigns are being waged against the advertising giants to give children a childhood where they are free to be themselves and explore the environment around them instead of being at the mercy of consumerism and branding.

On April 8 the American based organisation Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood honoured Annie Leonard with the 2010 Fred Rogers Integrity Award for her internet film, The Story of Stuff (featured on U-Tube).

The Story of Stuff explores how our obsession with Stuff is destroying the planet earth, our communities, and our health. It is both entertaining and humorous in its delivery and talks directly to young people. Annie’s message is clear “Let’s have a little more appreciation and reverence for the stuff we have instead of this mindless consumerism”.

This award was previous given to Morgan Spurlock – writer/producer/director and star of the Academy Award nominated film Super Size Me.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is an American organisation comprising of   health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups, parents, and individuals who care about children.  They are devoted to limiting the impact of commercial culture on children.  
 
Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood advocate that a marketing-driven media culture places profit above the public good.  The commercialisation of childhood is the link between many of the most serious problems facing children, and society, today. 

Childhood obesity, eating disorders, youth violence, sexualisation, family stress, underage alcohol and tobacco use, rampant materialism, and the erosion of children’s creative play, are all exacerbated by advertising and marketing. 

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

SOURCE: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood