Marketing has laid roots in every aspect of children’s lives, dictating how they play and learn and what they eat. This commercialisation has become a barrier to a good childhood.

Engulfed with images of how they should look and be and what they should own, children are struggling to keep up, resulting in increasing rates of stress, depression and low-self esteem. In promoting a link between possessions, social status and self worth, marketing worsens the lived experience of poverty for children who cannot access lifestyles advertised to them and makes them prone to bullying if they have the ‘wrong’ clothes or toys or other goods. Marketing is exploiting and proliferating unhelpful gender stereotypes and contributing to the increasing sexualisation of young girls in the name of profit. The relentless targeting of children by marketers selling foods high in fat, salt and sugar is contributing to all time high levels of obesity and related health problems in children.

Concurrently there has been a steady decline over recent years in the opportunities children have for healthy outdoor play, as public spaces have become increasingly dominated by commerce and traffic, and children’s leisure time has become increasingly fair game for market forces, on the whole promoting sedentary, screen-based pursuits.

This is a worrying and growing concern for parents, carers, teachers and children and urgent steps must be taken to help children rebalance their lives. We must, both directly ourselves and through our elected government, support children, parents, carers and teachers to withstand the growing pressures of commercialisation and restore children’s right to free play within the public realm.

To this end, we call for:

Chapter One: Protecting children from advertising

1.1 A ban on all advertising to children under 7 years old, in both broadcast and non broadcast media, including in-store marketing to children by way of displays, shop layouts and packaging.

1.2 A ban on product placement in all children’s TV programmes and films.

1.3 The introduction of a watershed of 9pm for television advertising of all foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS foods) and support for Baroness Thornton’s Private Members Bill seeking to legislate for this.

1.4 The introduction of a statutory Standards code in advertising to 7 to 16 year olds carrying a legal requirement to comply.

1.5 Provision of support to parents, carers and teachers and accessible resources to help them understand the impact of commercialisation on children and suggest ways they can offset it, for example ways of helping children understand the media.

Chapter Two: Providing opportunities for all children to participate in outdoor play

2.1 The recognition of children’s play provision as essential.

2.2 The strengthening of flexible working arrangements for all parents and carers to enable them to spend more time with their children.

2.3 The inclusion of play provision in the ‘core offer’ prospectus for extended services.

2.4 The inclusion of quality outdoor play space in guidance for Building Schools for the Future (BSF) tenders and in all new schools and child care provision proposals.

2.5 The recognition of playwork as a key part of the children’s professional workforce.

2.6 The introduction of performance indicators for local authorities on the extent and the quality of outdoor play provision for local children.

2.7 The inclusion of space for outdoor play in planning frameworks for all new housing builds and re-designs.

2.8 A reduction of the speed limit to 20MPH or less in all residential areas, more Home Zones and improvements in street design to create child-friendly neighbourhoods.

2.9 The creation of a new funding stream for play provision to secure investment above and beyond lottery funding.

Helen Goodman MP
Sue Palmer, author Toxic Childhood
Play England
Mothers Union
Michael Morpurgo, children's author and former Children's Laureate
Professor Tim Brighouse
Sami Timimi, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Visiting Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lincoln University
Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex; psychotherapist; writer.
Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder, Kids Co.
Wendy Scott, Former Chair and Chief Executive of The British Association for Early Childhood Education, Chair of the National Early Childhood Forum, DfES adviser on early years education, currently working with UNICEF on early childhood curriculum
Veronika Robinson, Editor, The Mother magazine
Anna Price, Primary School Teacher
Jean Barlow, Teacher Consultant, Rochdale Children’s Trust
Geoff Barton, Headteacher, King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds
Paul Cooper, Give Us Back Our Game campaign
Margaret Edgington, Early Years Consultant, Trainer and Author
Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship
Pippa Smith, founder Mediamarch
Miranda Suit, founder, Mediamarch
Sally Goddard Blythe MSc FRSA, Director, The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology (INPP)
Mary Tasker, Chair, Human Scale Education
Christopher Clouder, Director, Alliance for Childhood
Melanie Gill, Commonsense Associates, Child Forensic Psychologist

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