MAD AT MILEY
Sexy pop stars ‘worse than porn’ for kids
‘‘SEXUALISED’’ pop stars are more of a threat to children using the internet than hard core pornography, according to a child protection expert.
Jim Gamble, the former head of the government’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and current chairman of the safeguarding children board in Hackney, east London, said that ‘‘highly sexualised’’ singers such as Miley Cyrus have a ‘‘far greater’’ impact on young people than the worst kinds of pornography.
Addressing the culture, media and sport select committee, he told MPs that unlike pornography, there was ‘‘no filter’’ for children’s viewing of such celebrities.
He said: ‘‘I think there is far too great focus and emphasis on [the online pornography] side of the debate.
‘‘If you look at Miley Cyrus, if you look at some of the other pop stars and their behaviour, that has a far greater and much more easily accessible influence on young people today than actually seeing adult, or hardcore, pornography, for that matter.
‘‘There is no debate or discussion really about that, because you have young pop stars who young people want to emulate behaving in a highly sexualised way – and there is no filter [for that.]’’
Cyrus was criticised in August after a provocative performance at the MTV video awards in which she performed a dance move called ‘‘twerking’’, in a skimpy outfit. Her transformation from a ‘‘wholesome’’ Disney Channel actress was completed by the release of her music video, Wrecking Ball, in which she appears mostly nude.
Gamble told the MPs that the decision about what content children should or should not watch must lie with their parents, unless it was illegal. He added that it was ‘‘absolutely right’’ for internet service providers to ask parents to make an ‘‘active choice’’ about whether or not they wanted over18 content at home.
He said: ‘‘If parents are prompted to make a decision, then I don’t think you can do more than that – you aren’t going into their homes and looking after their children for them.
‘‘The reason it is inappropriate and not illegal is because it is not against the law, and thereby quite appropriate for parents or a carer or person who has a duty of care to make that decision.’’
Earlier, Dido Harding, the chief executive of TalkTalk, told MPs that they were ‘‘the generation’’ that must make the internet ‘‘safer’’ for children.
‘‘The sort of social and moral framework doesn’t exist yet, and so I do think there is quite an important role for legislators to play in thinking through where are the absolutely black-and-white rules that we need to put in place,’’ she said.
Harding said that 1.2 million of her company’s four million customers opt in to a ‘‘whole-home’’ filter that blocks certain over-18 content, with 400,000 choosing to activate the company’s full childprotection filters.