Battle of the billboards

Julie Gale from Kids Free 2B Kids said recently, “Research shows that exposure to sexualised imagery is linked to children's experience of increased anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, body image problems, eating disorders, self harm, and sexually transmitted infections. Kids are also becoming sexually active at younger and younger ages.”

Given the "relevant audience and relevant programme time zone" of outdoor advertising (general audience and all time zones), the Outside Media Association members are breaching the AANA code of ethics every time a sexually explicit billboard is displayed. Sexual imagery is undoubtedly in contravention of prevailing community standards for children's viewing.

The irony of this debate is that when I decided to put up a different sort of billboard - one with the slogan “OUTDOOR ADVERTISING SHOULD BE G-RATED”, the artwork was rejected by major billboard companies in Brisbane for no particular reason (apart from it potentially affecting their business).

While my ad did not breach any advertising standards, it did not fit the ideology of the media companies. I was being censored - not the other way around! After significant lobbying and support from community groups the billboard has finally gone up on Creek Road, Carina. The response has been immediate and the petition webpage promoted on the billboard crashed from the high volume of people logging on to sign it.

This petition will be presented to the Senate with a series of recommendations developed by me and a group of key representative organisations, teachers, psychologists and creative experts who met at the Summit last week.

I want to underline that billboards do not discriminate in terms of audience or time zones. Billboards are not vetted before they go in to public arena.

Even if an ad was deemed unsuitable, the damage has already been done and the desired marketing effect has been achieved. Many of the images in outdoor advertising would be deemed sexual harassment if they were in an office/work space.

• Advertising or Marketing Communications to Children must not include sexual imagery in contravention of Prevailing Community Standards.
• Advertising or Marketing Communications to Children must not undermine the authority, responsibility or judgment of parents or carers.
• Advertising or Marketing Communications shall treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience and, where appropriate, the relevant programme time zone.

These codes fully support outdoor advertising being G-rated. Given the "relevant audience and relevant programme time zone" of outdoor advertising (general audience and all time zones), I believe that the OMA members are breaching the AANA code of ethics every time a sexually explicit billboard is displayed. I also believe that the sexual imagery is undoubtedly in contravention of prevailing community standards for children's viewing and that it undermines the authority of parents to determine the content their children view.

The summit resulted in several key recommendations being tabled and developed a petition which has already gained considerable attention demonstrating how strongly people feel about this issue.

Again, this is not about censorship. As the renowned “free speech absolutist” Naomi Wolf said in The Sunday Age (May 2, 2010): “I think it’s appropriate to keep pornography away from children. I don’t think it’s censorship to keep public space porn-free - people still have a choice about when they want to consume it. I don’t feel it’s right to impose pornography on - people in the public sphere.”

Those lending their support to my campaign, those represented by supportive community groups and I are not just complaining about the negative influence that sex-based advertisements are having on our kids. We want to be part of the solution to enable a culture that is family-friendly with ethical, representative screening to avoid moments such as your six-year-old asking "What is Sexpo?" or "Why do you have to be sexy to drink Sprite?"