Teenage Mags Face Criticism

The newly formed Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP) has adjudicated on 30 complaints concerning Just 17, Sugar and It’s Bliss.

The panel believed that the Annabel G advice page in J17 was not technically in breach of guidelines but recommended more attention be given to ensuring that advice on sexual activity be more responsible, and the Sugar feature in which the genital areas of celebrities were covered with tomato ketchup bottles was also cleared.

Sugar was, however, found to be in breach of the guidelines for an article entitled “I slept with 40 boys in 3 months” under the sections dealing with encouraging a responsible attitude to sex and contraception. While much of the article in general was felt to highlight the destructive nature of the experience, it was believed that this may not have been picked up by the cursory reader and could even have been seen as boasting. It’s Bliss was also felt to have been irresponsible in its treatment of an article entitled My teacher is my lover.

TMAP was set up last July to investigate complaints about teenage magazine titles after the Conservative MP Peter Luff expressed concern at the amount of sexual content in such titles *New Code For Teenage Mags.

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Contact Nick Mazur, TMAP, 0171 405 0819