UK: Protection Of Minors

In the UK, the Advertising Association has produced a position paper for the Department of National Heritage on the “protection of minors and human dignity in audio visual and information services.” The paper stresses the importance of treating commercial communication issues within the context of DGXV’s Green Paper, and castigates the European Consumers’ Union (BEUC) for appearing to concentrate on advertising to children rather than on the threat posed by the access to hard core pornography and paedophilia on the internet. The AA response also comprehensively sets out the complex and detailed self-regulatory codes of practice that currently pertain in the UK and elsewhere in Europe in the field of advertising to children. Copies of the Response are available from the Advertising Association.