COM0005

Written evidence submitted by the Kids Call It Out Campaign

Key Points:

• Childhood must be reclaimed and preserved; recognising the role that responsible, age-appropriate and well taught Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) plays in this is key. This does not encourage children to have sex, but rather gives them the skills to protect themselves and to nurture firm friendships and other relationships.
• Children are overexposed to highly sexualised imagery and offensive gender stereotypes which have extremely damaging consequences for their relationships with peers, siblings and others. This is a safeguarding issue.
• Sexism and sexual harassment are a daily reality for girls in schools. School staff normalise this behaviour as ‘banter’ which girls are routinely told to ignore.
• Policy needs to be more responsive to children’s needs: they are currently locked out of policy making and their views overlooked. Kids Call It Out supports the call for a Children’s Minister.
• An urgent need exists for opportunities in schools, community groups and play spaces for children to discuss issues affecting them, such as sexist bullying, sexual pressures, mobile technology and social media. This includes doing more to help children and young people understand the risks and consequences of sexting which is ubiquitous.
• SRE must be made statutory across school curricula at primary and secondary level. Teacher training and continuing professional development is an indispensable component of good quality SRE.

1. The Kids Call It Out Campaign is a new grassroots campaign empowering girls and boys to stop ‘everyday sexism’ before it starts and call out sexual harassment in our schools and playspaces. The campaign was founded by one mum who witnessed shocking sexual bullying and harassment among primary school aged children in a rural playground. She has since been joined by parents and community members keen to reclaim childhood by addressing the inappropriate oversexualisation of children and its consequences. The Campaign is just being set up, but will provide relevant research and teaching / awareness raising materials to schools, parents and communities and will push for statutory Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) and quality teacher professional development. The Campaign particularly underlines the importance of reaching out to marginalised and vulnerable children who are most at risk. 

2. This submission to the day of evidence focuses on three of the commitments outlined by the Commissioner in her report, Ambitious for Children (March 2015), which are particularly relevant to the work of our campaign.

Celebrating Childhood

3. The Kids Call It Out Campaign exists because we believe that the oversexualisation of children in online and broadcast media is inappropriate and offensive. The Campaign seeks to reclaim and celebrate childhood by allowing children to be children instead of pushing them into adolescent and adult behaviours, scenarios and responsibilities before they are ready. The campaign also exists to question and challenge overtly gendered and sexualised behaviours which we believe to be wrong more generally.

4. Childhood should be a period during which children are able to learn about sexuality and relationships at a pace appropriate to their maturity and lifeskills. Children should also be able to learn about the differences between men and women in a context that emphasises equality and equity. The proliferation of gender-specific and even sexualised toys and products for children has been highlighted by campaign groups such as lettoysbetoys. But there has also been a tendency to focus on girls (and their mothers) in the discourse on this topic[1] rather than recognising – ironically -that equality is for boys too. Prepubescent children need the freedom to experience growing up asexually, without being inhibited by restricting or damaging gender stereotypes, or by being made to feel responsible too early for their own sexual safety and wellbeing.

5. Developments in technology are exposing children to sexual imagery, and the expectation to behave sexually, at an increasingly early age. Children are regularly and consistently exposed to sexualised imagery that they are ill-equipped to deal with. In 2013-14 ChildLine had a 145% increase in the number of children telling them about exposure to online porn, websites with harmful content or child abuse images.[2] Children report feeling completely overwhelmed by feelings of distress, shame, and guilt at seeing these images, often unintentionally.

6. Sexting is similarly problematic. A 2013 survey of 13-18 year olds reported that 60% had been asked for a sexual image or video of themselves. The gendering of this practice has been highlighted in a recent study for the NSPCC, which explored the relationship between ‘unequal gendered and sexualised power relations’ at some schools and sexting behaviour.[3]

7. Well-informed parents tell us that monitoring their children’s smartphone and internet usage is a daily task, as is an ongoing dialogue about appropriate content and its use. One mother of two sons told us, ‘I've hopefully taught them so far to be concerned. To tell me. To talk to me. I praise them when they do. To me that's the key. Preparation. Talk to kids about what may happen. Talk to them about talking.’[4]

8. However, not all parents are aware of the risks children are exposed to or have the skills to manage these if they are. Without the education and awareness needed to protect themselves, girls and boys are frequently vulnerable to abuse and public shaming. One recent case saw a Stroud man jailed after sharing indecent images of a 14 year old girl on Facebook. "I never thought he would show them to anyone else," she has said.[5] We need to do much more to help children and young people understand the risks and consequences of sexting and how badly wrong it can go.

Reduction in Harm to Children - The extent of peer to peer sexual harassment and abuse in schools

9. More than 5,500 alleged sex crimes in UK schools were reported to police in the last three years.[6] Sexism and harassment are becoming a part of daily life for British girls, with almost 60% of girls and young women aged 13 to 21 reporting sexual harassment at school or college and 20% experiencing unwanted touching (a form of sexual assault), according to 2014 research surveying 1,400 girls by Girlguiding UK.[7] The same study highlighted the fact that authority figures normalise the experience of sexual harassment with more than half of girls aged between 11 and 16 saying that teachers and staff sometimes – or always – tell girls to ignore incidents of sexual harassment or dismiss it as a bit of ‘banter.’

10. The problem of sexual bullying in school is widespread: at the lower end of what would tend to be regarded as serious, 71% of 16-18 year olds say they have heard sexual name calling towards girls at school daily or a few times per week.[8]  

11. At the higher end of the sexual bullying spectrum, 60 children were permanently excluded for sexual misconduct in schools in 2013/14.[9]

12. Without a statutory framework to teach children about sex and relationships, schools simply have no explicitly defined forum - or time, or motivation - in which the norms that allow sexist bullying to take place can be examined and challenged. Given that pupils also note with distress that teachers themselves may not question a status quo in which sexual harassment is rife, and think it acceptable to direct the subjects of overt sexual bullying to ignore their own abuse, or minimise the harassment as ‘banter,’ it would appear that those charged with children’s education themselves are in need of challenge, which would be an automatic and valuable corollary of a statutory requirement to teach SRE in schools. This particular point has been reinforced in our discussions with teachers. One Deputy Head Teacher from Glasgow told us teacher training is absolutely key to the successful delivery of good quality SRE in the city.[10]

A Machinery of Government to Support Children

13. Evidence shows that children are locked out of policy making and their views are overlooked. Recent research on children’s participation in decision making in England indicates that children are generally dissatisfied with their level of input into decision making processes in school, in the home, and in relation to the area where they lived.[11] Kids Call It Out believe that if children are given a say in decisions that affect them, policy making will be more responsive to their needs.

14. We strongly believe that more should be done to prioritise children’s issues at the heart of government. While we welcome the establishment of the post of Children’s Commissioner and the strengthening of this role in the 2014 Children and Families Act, we believe that a cabinet level Children’s Minister would ensure this more effectively. We support the UK Children’s Commissioner’s calls for Child Rights Impact Assessments of new and current policies and legislation across all government departments, as well as the development of a high-level government strategy for children.

15. We believe there is an urgent need to provide support and machinery in schools, community groups and play spaces so that children have the opportunities to discuss issues that are affecting them, such as sexist bullying, sexual pressures, mobile technology and social media. If combined with improved sexual and relationships education so that children know sexist bullying is wrong, children will be empowered to speak out and raise complaints because they know that their concerns will be acted upon.

16. In practical terms this means intensifying efforts to tackle everyday sexism, sexist bullying and sexual harassment in whatever form it takes, whether in person or via mobile technology. Kids Call It Out supports the conclusions of Professor Jessica Ringrose's research for the NSPCC on young people, social media and sexuality,[12] that calls for:

• Sexist bullying and sexual pressures to be part of the curriculum.

• Teachers and care providers are provided with support and training to identify and address sexist bullying and sexual harassment when it occurs.

• Greater efforts should be made to work with technology providers to block harmful messages.

17. We look forward to the outcomes from the day of evidence with the Commissioner and encourage her to seize this important moment to facilitate change that safeguards children’s rights in England and beyond.

October 2015