- Abp Freier holds up “Tie Me to The Bedpost” lip gloss, part of Priceline’s range of make-up for pre-teen girls.
‘Pornification’ creating toxic society for children
by Jane Still
Dr Philip Freier called last month for a national inquiry into the state of childhood in Australia. He asked for immediate bipartisan support from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition for an inquiry into the crisis of rising childhood depression, and said that Australia desperately needs to investigate the causes and solutions.
“There is much talk about the economy and economic management in the lead up to the election, but little talk of what sort of society we want to be,” he said. “There is rightly a growing concern about climate change, but where is the concern about society change?”
The issue of childhood depression was the subject of the latest of the series of public breakfast conversations with the Archbishop, held in Federation Square. He made his announcement to a media conference immediately following the forum, saying that the issue was heading towards a crisis point. A national inquiry with broad terms of reference would assist whichever government takes power after the election to form public policy based on good evidence about children’s development and mental health, rather than “anecdote and opinion”.
“I think it would be a tremendous investment in Australia’s future if we could have a bipartisan commitment to this before the election, and roll out this inquiry… so that as a society we are properly informed about the sorts of social policies we can put into place to benefit young people,” he said.
Dr Freier held the media conference with his Conversation guests, Professor Alasdair Vance, the Head of Academic Child Psychiatry, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, and Melinda Tankard Reist, the Director of Women’s Forum Australia. According to Ms Tankard Reist, we have created a culture that is toxic to children. An estimated 100,000 young people in Australia are suffering depression and 20,000 prescriptions are written annually for antidepressants for young people and children, she said. As many as one in five are suffering from some sort of eating disorder, with children as young as twelve vomiting and fasting to lose weight.
“We welcome the call by Dr Freier for a national inquiry,” said Ms Tankard Reist. “We think an inquiry is overdue… Children are suffering low self-esteem and anxiety and it’s time we faced the reality that something’s got to be done.” An inquiry would have to examine the way that advertisers are able to market to children however they want, and that the Australian Advertising Standards Board needed to be completely overhauled, she said.
“We’re seeing the ‘pornification’ of the public space. Children are exposed to hyper-sexualised messages, to idealised, airbrushed sexual images that tell them ‘this is how you should be’. Everyone asks why can’t parents do more, but what can parents do when they have to drive past ‘pornographied’ billboards every day on the way to school?”
Professor Alasdair Vance, who says that Australia has seen a fourfold increase in depression amongst under-18s in the last thirty years, also supported the Archbishop’s call. He welcomed any gathering of information that would help “facilitate the optimal development of young minds”. “We’re talking about a true slow burn crisis here,” said Professor Vance. “Depressive disorders are happening more frequently and younger. We know this is not because genetics have changed. It’s because the environment has changed. Such a national inquiry can provide a forum for information that can help us shape the environment, and allow human beings at their earliest stage of life to develop optimally.”
Dr Freier said we should be concerned about the rapidity of social change with “makes us accept every change as being inevitable.” Childhood itself is under threat. “We need all the evidence, to put out all the options, to protect young people and to stop their childhood being stolen away,” he said.
Dr Freier’s concerns have been met with support from the community, with a large number of letters to the editor in The Age, an editorial published in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, and a warm response to radio interviews. There was no comment however from the political parties.
A petition is also being circulated for concerned people to sign to urge politicians to support an Inquiry. You can sign the petition online here.
From the Archbishop's statement: I am calling on the Prime Minister and the Leader of the
Opposition to pledge a national inquiry into the state of childhood in
Australia. I call on them to adopt a bipartisan response to the causes
of anxiety and depression in our young. There is much talk about the
economy and economic management in the lead up to the election, but
little talk of what sort of society we want to be. There is rightly a
growing concern about climate change but where is the concern about
society change? One barometer of the health of our society is the mental health and wellbeing of our children, and the signs are that this is under threat and indeed childhood itself seems to be under threat. Children have a right to their childhood, but we are stealing it away, particularly because of advertising, the media and the internet, and the pressures on children and young people to be obsessed with body image, fashion and sex. Childhood depression is heading toward a crisis point. The country desperately needs a bipartisan approach to investigate this issue and to actively look for solutions. |