Am I being sensitive..or is this a bit hmmmm

[PleaseJustLeaveYourBrotherAlon]

I saw this advertisement for photo ID for teenagers at local bus stop

I wanted to ad it to the thread but it won't let me for some reason so it's in my profile photos. If it is too small it says this

The same But different.

...It's no wonder we get confused!

Underneath two photos of a teenage girl. One with hair in a ponytail and wearing school uniform and the other with hair done and maybe a bit of make up..but aso staring directly in to the camera, instead of all shy and sideways on like in the first photo.

I might be reading in to it.. but I just think it's a bit strange and again portraying young girls (this is geared towards 14 and 15 year olds) as looking like adults because they put some lipstick on and aren;t wearing a uniform.

I cant access your profile, but isnt this advert aimed at places like bars and clubs to make them more aware of how young people (particularly girls) can make themselves look older? Sorry if mistaken.

It's the bus company saying unless they kids have an ID when they get on the bus they will assume they are older. WHich is fine, it;s just the way they have phrased it iyswim?

I think i have opened my profile.

It just reminds me of some dirty old man saying how could I know she was 14?

Apologies- i got on your profile and see that it is totally different to what i assumed it was. And yes i totally see what you mean- it does sound like a " but she looked 16" defence cry. I think they've worded that badly.

Thing is, teenagers do try to make themselves look older, if they want to buy alcohol or impress others. And some teens simply look older than they are (ie they are tall or have obvious facial hair or something), which can lead to confusion over things like bus passes.
However, I think perhaps your discomfort lies in the fact that this ad only displays pictures of girls, when teenage boys also can look (or be trying to look) older/younger than their true age, and perhaps a better poster would contain several different images of teens both boy and girl.

I think you might be over heading it. It's just trying to stop kids getting arises if the bus driver asks for proof of age, isn't it?

Yeah they have this in pubs too.

It's to remind staff that underage children can look older than they are.

I don't like it as an advert either.

I get the point, our station master had trouble with DD1 being 14, because she's taller than me. On her own I think he'd have had less bother as she doesn't sound that mature.

The pictures are very crass, OK for a bus driver, shop assistant training course, but not a public poster. They really do reinforce the age old "but she looked older attitude/defence in a way I don't feel comfortable with at all"

Surely they could come up with a way of saying proof of age cards make everyone's lives run more smoothly, in a much more suitable way.

Yes, starball. They could even show two pics of different children. One like your daughter who is standing over the bus driver. And maybe one little weedy kid who looks about 9.

They don't need to the whole "make up and lack of uniform makes her look legal" thing

Also this isn't aimed at staff like it sounds like the pub thing is..it's aimed at the general public..

I disagree, I think. 14/15 year olds can and do look a good deal older, and I don't think we do anyone any favours by pretending they don't. The important aspect is what comes next: "...so it's not your fault if you get it wrong" or "...so you need to make sure you aren't just going by superficial appearance"?

The acknowledgement that teenagers can look a good bit older has led to supermarkets' have a "challenge 21" or "challenge 25" policy -- not a bad thing IMO if a similar mental caveat can be wired into people in general ("Does this girl look under 21? Then there's a reasonable chance she could actually be under 16...")

(Mind you, I haven't seen the specific poster in question)

you can see it in my profile Ive opened it (i think!)

On the other hand, anything that encourages people not to accept that someone (male or female) may not be old enough "just because they look it" shouldn't be frowned on.

Are there different versions of the poster? A lot of the time these campaigns use different models to push the point home...

That reads terribly! I was trying to say anything that encourages people not to take kids ages for granted based on looks....

I don't really see the first one as "shy" it's just a standard school photo pose, isn't it? Whereas the second photo is the same girl out of uniform, as she would be if she were going into town shopping with friends not particularly made up (as you say, maybe a little bit of makeup) or dressed in "adult"/suggestive clothing, but it'd be hard to say for sure, once she was out of school uniform, whether the girl in the picture was entitled to half fare on the bus. I really can't find it particularly crass or unreasonable.

It would be good to have different versions of the poster with different male and female models, though.

Of course this whole problem could be, and should now all DCs have to stay in education (training), by making adult fares 18.

I go that momsstiffler :)

Not sure if there are other versions of the poster it's the only one I have seen.

Anadventure, I may be reading in to it, but it's a different pose not staring straight in to the camera in a "selfie" kind of way. If that is how you do your school photos here that makes sense. (I am not British, so I don't know)

actually the second photo looks much much like an american school photo.

Hmm. I was beginning to agree - that this kind of campaign might reinforce the argument 'but she looked old enough', however I am more inclined to agree with momstiffler - it may well serve as a reminded for older men that younger girls can often look older, never assume.

The thing that I don't understand is.

If (for example) 14 yo girls generally "look" 16.

Then it is the general perception of what a 14yo girl looks like that is wrong.

What needs to change surely is society's ideas of what in their collective head a girl of X age looks like.

People have been saying "oh well girls look older than they are" generally & as an excuse for poor behaviour towards them for donkeys years. What needs to happen is for people to think "ah well if she looks 17 to me, then she's actually 13, and it's the image in my head that is incorrect, i'll leave her well alone".

Rather than the current situation where everyone pretends that teenage girls look like some random idea that none of them actually look like as a way of not having to worry about loads of stuff that happens to them.

I mean you get "she looked older" directed about girls in school uniform for crying out loud.

Anyway, rant over. I don't like that ad either, I think it is poorly delivered as it comes off as "well how can anyone be expected to know this girl is underage" which is clearly a dodgy message.

OK maybe some of them look what the collective imagination of an X yo looks like, but generally they don't, IYSWIM.

Meant to change that before I posted!

Also think this applies to schoolboys often as well.

People need to get into their heads that looking attractive in a non-childlike way does not mean "cannot be a child" IYSWIM.

The pictures themselves are ok I think. What absolutely isnt ok are the words

"...It's no wonder we get confused!"

As that can easily be read as 'I didn't know yer honour, she tricked me'

It's grim and not at all what they meant to communicate I'm sure. Ugh.

Maybe "see sixteen, think fourteen" would have been a bit better.