Time to bad all adverts to children?

[Daddster]

There's probably been loads of discussion about Ed Balls' proposals to "to protect youngsters from the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood", but just in case it slipped through the net, my ha'pennorth - I think they should ban adverts directed to under-16s altogether.

My personal epiphany about how bad advertising is for children came about 1984 when I got a heavily-TV-advertised TCR ("total control racing") car racing set and it was used for about a week. It then remained unused under my chest of drawers during adolescence staring at in an accusatory fashion, saying "your parents spent £45 on me and you never really wanted me in the first place".

There is a campagain in the USA called Commercial Free Childhood. OK, it's a bit more extreme over there, but why not?

We may just avoid the Shopocalypse!

One great advantage of the digital TV box. We never watch anything live - so no adverts, ever. Same for dd's programs.

But I am concerned about the move to get around this by placing adverts into programs themselves (as props, subplots etc) - very dodgy.

Just noticed I wrote (possibly sub-consciously) "bad" instead of "ban" but YKWIM.

I agree, Daddster. I think the ban should include edibles as well as toys and since you mentioned sexualisation of childhood, can I just state how annoying I find child singing shows (why does eurovision junior spring to mind) with young girls under the age of ten swinging their hips sexually.

As a parent, I find adverts that say things like "helps your child develop in the right way" really irritating too. Who are they to tell me what the right way is? Did I develop wrongly because I didn't have the product as a small child?

And where do they get all these smiling, gurgling babies from to make the ads? I can't imagine my ds (nearly 8 months) sitting still and smiling long enough to shoot the film without trying to either eat or destroy the toy being advertised (or drop it behind his head, his latest trick)

yes, that would be great - as it is, they don't see many adverts anyway, because I couldn't cope with "Mummy can I have mummy I need mummy boys always have mummy that is cool and everyone has" that comes part and parcel of a 4 year old watching Nick Junior.

he didn't manage to stick to my "If you ask me for things off the telly I'll switch it off" rule, so now it is Beebies only. Which suits ds2 down to the ground.

I wish they did this for older channels, but I suppose there is always cbbc.

Pisses me off that I am paying for about 10 kids channels, and I only let them watch 1! And that's free anyway!

They just don't get the fact that its an advert - dd (4) is always asking to "watch baby dollies like on Grandma's tv"

Think it should be banned. Most of the stuff advertised is a heap of steaming cack anyway.

I?m torn about this tbh. I despise nick junior because of the amount of adverts on it. In fact I hate all adverts, not just those aimed at children, and I am for ever grateful to my sky plus box for the fact I need never watch another advert ever again.

But I don?t actually generally agree with the notion of banning things based on pester power. I hate the adverts, but I don?t have to act on them, if ds asks, I say no, end of.

Ultimately it is the parents that have control over what their children have/don?t have.

Well obviously I have control over what my child has. But I don't like the way that advertising encourages children to be consumers and to want more than they have.

I agree Freeview is a huge step forward - I love being able to fast-forward through the "because I'm worth it" and all that rubbish. CBeebies is also such a blessing. DD1 doesn't ask for TV, she says "want to see beebies, Mummy".

Always amazed me that people pay for Sky or NTL/Virgin Media - you get ten zillion channels full of utter crap which take ages to wade through, you lose your privacy (you have to stay connected to the phone to tell them what you're watching) and have adverts pumped at you 24/7. It is definitely past the zenith of the diminishing marginal returns curve.

I watched Nick Junior for about 15 mins and it was a very irritating cartoon called Dora the Explorer spliced with adverts for toys (no sweets mercifully). Never again.

not bothered about adverts tbh