Lads Mags: Put it away!
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I was driving to work one morning when I heard a story on the radio about so called lads magazines. Publishers have been told to hide their magazines in modesty bags or they will risk being taken off the shelves. I completely agree with this and have thought for some time that simply putting these magazines on the top shelf out of the reach of children is not good enough. Children can still see the content on the front of the magazine.A recent family holiday to Spain highlighted this even more for me. I was in a local supermarket in Menorca and the top shelf (which was eye level) had around five of these types of magazines. The front covers were very graphic and I don’t just mean the sort of image you can get on page 3 of the sun. I was with my 17 month old twin girls, my husband and 14 year old step son at the time. Why do the publishers and indeed the shops who sell these magazines think it is ok to have them on show in such a way that children can see them? Thankfully the Co-operative are giving publishers until September 9th to take action or they will stop selling them.
Another example is when I did my weekly food shop a few months back. Someone obviously thought it would be funny to open a newspaper to a page displaying a woman in very little clothing bending over and they had folded the page in half and put it back on the shelf in plain view of people entering the supermarket. Is this right? That children and adults are subjected to this? I don’t think it is. I have no problem at all with anyone who wants to purchase these magazines, but I agree that placing them in a modesty bag is a good idea.
What do you think?
