Anyone else bothered by magazine covers in supermarkets unsuitable for children

[Howgoesthework]

Hi all, just seeing if any other people are bothered by the front covers of magazines like Take A Break or Chat in supermarkets?

I've complained in my local Tesco's three times now about front pages with stories like 'My poor brother TORTURED TO DEATH in homemade horror film - His throat was slit for the camera TWICE' or 'We found poor Mum CHOPPED UP in the kitchen BIN' (and these aren't the worst headlines by any means). They have moved them up one level, and they are still completely visible to my 12yo, 9yo and 5yo. (Not such a problem for the youngest as he won't be reading it yet, but for the other two?!)

I really want to change this but I don't know what to do. I currently turn the magazines round or put them right at the top behind others, and I'm considering taking direct action with a marker pen if they don't sort this out.

Does anyone else have a problem with this, and if so, what do you do? The supermarket obviously makes enough money out of them not to care about the odd complaint, but I find it completely unacceptable.

Any thoughts?

Just wanted to be clear, I’m not trying to stop anyone reading these magazines. I just don’t want my kids seeing the gruesome front covers (nor any kids, though I know some parents don’t feel it matters

Same - I don't want them banning, just moving up a few shelves/covered up or the content toned down so there's at least a balance of positive stories as opposed to violent abuse ones!

I’m with you on this OP.

I find these grim never mind a child!

My son has tunnel vision fortunately in the magazine aisle. He has autism and will just go straight to the kids section and look for one particular comic. Me on the other hand as a child was an avid reader and very nosy curious. I'd have scan read every front page of each mag and paper while my siblings were arguing over the kid's comics.

So just because some kids won't notice them doesn't mean that's the case for all kids.

The front page headlines are vile. Really gruesome and usually involve child abuse or murder. I can only imagine they're enjoyed by the same sorts as those that buy novels based on the same topics. Grim!

I agree they should be looking at either covered fronts or placed high up. If people want to buy a magazine as they're tempted by a graphic headline about child abuse or murder that's their choice but it doesn't mean everyone should be subjected to having these headlines in our faces.

I totally agree. They are so graphic and in lovely lurid bold print to catch the eye.

"Raped aged 12 with a bottle by dad" or whatever it was I saw recently is not what I want my kids to read.
I can chose not to let them watch certain programs or websites, but these are not even up high.

YANBU OP!

With magazine sales falling, it seems editors are desperate to sell their magazines by whatever headline grabbing means they can. But surely this will have the opposite effect, driving even more people away.

YABU the worls does not revolve around your offspring

Don't be daft Fruit there is a massive gap between the world not revolving around one person's kids and what is best for all the kids we are trying to raise as mentally healthy ones in a decent society.

Me on the other hand as a child was an avid reader and very nosy curious. I'd have scan read every front page of each mag and paper while my siblings were arguing over the kid's comics

Same, I read everything as a child, still do! Would totally have caught my eye as a child if those graphic headlines were around then.

Then just look at the kids magazines. Pick them and move on.

At my local Lidl for example they are next to each other on the floor level shelves. I was thinking this the other day actually, as my daughter didn't need to read "I was raped by dad" or whatever it was, right next to the kids mags. Same with the papers for sad men who can't look at boobs anywhere else but their newspaper.

YABU the worls does not revolve around your offspring

No, but the world should revolve around the next generation not turning in to warped misogynists. Society does have a legal responsibility to treat children differently.

God on you for complaining!! I never have although I feel exact the same. Also with you in wondering who reads that absolute bulge for entertainment. Misery and Jeremy Kyle like headlines seem to be the norm now. Sigh.
Maybe the rate of depression might be lower if society changed its focus a bit.

Bilge not bulge!

YANBU. Vile trash that shouldn't exist, let alone where accessible for children.

And the poster that mentioned children's literature - you do realise Roald Dahl stories are fictional, yes? They also don't tend to mention graphic rape or real life murder.

These magazines have changed significantly. I know for sure because in my past life (about 15 years ago) I had a job researching women's magazines. Take a break type magazine always had the odd sensationalist cover story but they were definitely not about torture and rape, more my sister slept with my husband type and weird extreme diet stories. I imagine the covers have changed because they sell more. I can tell you that they would have pictures of unicorns on them if the research showed they would sell..Mock covers are regularly tested to see what people think of them and how it would affect their likelyhood to buy them. It is a depressing indictment of the average human being actually. One of the reasons I am glad I don't do that work any more.

I do agree that they should not be in front of children.

YANBU

I agree they have got a lot worse. I remember when Take a Break first came out and the stories were written (sub-edited) in a rather jokey style. A lot of the stories were about bigamists etc "My hubby was running three families!" type of thing - not toe-curling stuff.

I was staying at someone's house recently and they had a giant pile of "trashy" magazines. The content now! Gruesome. And dispiritingly it depicts lives that people should be ashamed to admit to, let alone happy to sell to a magazine. Every other story includes enabled incest and people having babies with every random they meet, the random inevitably turning out to be violent/a paedophile etc.

I totally agree with the OP - you are absolutely right to be concerned and I am concerned too. I think it's depressing if so many members of the public want to read horrifying stuff like that, it's ghoulish, but there is absolutely no way children should be exposed to stuff like that.

If people have to read these things then fine, that's up to them, but I think shops should be more responsible in putting stuff with inappropriate content on higher shelves where they are out of the line of sight of kids. It's not a difficult solution surely ?

And actually your point about magazines is just one aspect of a much bigger problem I think, one example being horror movies on display on low level shelves with violent or disturbing images on the front. And as Halloween approaches I know there will be some really horrible stuff on display in a lot of shops where little kids will see it, because correct me if I'm wrong but in the past decade the focus of halloween has switched from ghosts and witches to blood and gore, which it didn't used to be. For example if anyone has been in Poundland recently there is very realistic a mask of a person with their face ripped to shreds, which I was massively fucked off that my DD saw as we were walking through. Put it high up if you must sell it. Although to be honest I actually think it's unreasonable for anyone to sell or buy something that horrific - that's my personal opinion, I know the gory halloween brigade wouldn't agree and would say it's just a bit of fun, but there are limits and that mask goes past it.

Sorry derailed a bit there OP, but I think you catch my drift.

The marker pen would definitely see you in trouble with the law!

Another one here who agrees with you wholeheartedly.

It's depressing and worrying that anyone enjoys these headlines and stories, and it is not appropriate to display them where they are likely to be seen by young children.

In many shops these magazines are displayed at children's eye level by the checkout queues, where they are almost impossible to avoid.

YANBU. I don't want to see those headlines myself.

It annoys me that the horror films are kept so low on the dvd shelves in our local tesco. Some of the covers are quite disturbing to look at.

Its got nothing to do with offence, its about being age appropriate.

We have ratings on films for the same reason that these magazine covers are not suitable for children. Some things are disturbing for them.

Sad state of affairs that they even exist. Who reads this utter rubbish? Pick up a book for goodness sake.

In our supermarket they are positioned at the end of an aisle that we were queuing in once. Really enjoyed that conversation with my 7 year old. I'm with you OP.

YANBU. I think these headlines are horrible. At least the nastiness of headlines about celebs' shocking weight gain can be discussed with children & you can talk about issues of fat-shaming, etc, but I don't want to know about gruesome murders, let alone discuss it with my children.

OP, you could write to your MP and ask them to take this up or start a petition on Change.org or similar? Or look for a symp

I spoke to the manager of my local sainsbury local a few year ago about this and they moved them. It should be a no brainer though shouldn't it. Maybe a Mumsnet campaign would be in order.