Mothers’ Union believes children should be valued as children, not consumers. Yet marketers target children’s natural inexperience in order to reach the household purse.
Giving children the message that they are what they own, rather than being valued for who they are, can negatively affect their wellbeing. Nearly three-fifths of parents believe that advertising seen by children can be harmful to them. Using sex to sell to children is particularly objectionable and 80% of parents are concerned about the impact of sexualised content in television, films, magazines and the internet on their children.
Our Bye Buy Childhood campaign aims to empower families to challenge the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood through positive action.
Join our campaign to say “bye bye” to buying childhood.
Mothers’ Union has launched this campaign in Britain and Republic of Ireland to:
- Challenge children, their parents or guardians and wider family to think about their consumer habits
- Empower families to address the influence of commercialisation within the home
- Engage with the commercial world and take positive action to challenge instances of inappropriate marketing or selling
- Hold the UK Government accountable on the pledges made in the coalition’s Programme for Government to
- address the commercialisation and sexualisation of children; and
- raise awareness amongst other political representatives across the UK and Ireland.
