BYE, BUY CHILDHOOD

“Our kids are growing up believing they are what they own”. In response to this, Mothers’ Union is launching a major campaign this week.

Mothers’ Union believes children should be valued as children, not consumers. However, childhood has become a marketing opportunity worth £99 billion in the UK. Marketers target children’s natural inexperience, through methods such as celebrity endorsement, in order to reach not only children’s pocket money but also the household purse. 

These commercial pressures encourage materialism which negatively affects children’s wellbeing, family life and peer relationships, and can encourage values that Jesus taught against. The use of sexualised content and the imposition of sexuality on children to market and sell goods is particularly concerning. Families can feel overwhelmed by this commercialisation of childhood and unsure how to challenge powerful marketing initiatives. 

Mothers’ Union intends to

•         Raise awareness of the commercialisation of childhood

•         Empower families to address the influences of the commercial world within the home

•         Hold the UK Government accountable to its pledge to address the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood; and through Mothers’ Union members lobbing political representatives in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Mothers’ Union is releasing a report highlighting new research findings, along with campaign materials for anyone to get involved. Also a booklet for families to help them think through the issues and manage the impact of the commercial world within the home has been published.

See the campaign website at www.byebuychildhood.org