Blog: parents have more sway than they think

Condoms are to be advertised round-the-clock on television under proposals published today.

In an attempt to cut the teenage pregnancy rate, which is the highest in Europe, the Committee of Advertising Practice and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice wants to relax the current rules. The authority also proposes to allow pro-abortion services to advertise on television for the first time in a move condemned immediately by anti-abortion groups.

The 9pm watershed on condom advertisements is to be abolished, although they will not be broadcast around programmes aimed at children under 10.

The change is outlined in a consultation by the authority beginning today on new advertising codes for broadcast and other media. Pregnancy advice services will be able to advertise on television but must make it clear whether or not their service includes abortion referrals.

The use of condoms was condemned last week by the Pope as a health measure that “aggravates” rather than protects against the problem of HIV/Aids infection.

Anti-abortion and Catholic groups believe that condoms encourage promiscuity and so have the opposite effect of what is intended, increasing rates of unwanted pregnancies and risking an increase of sexually transmitted diseases.

At present, condoms cannot be advertised on Channel 4 before 7pm and on other channels before 9pm, in order to protect younger viewers from “inappropriate” content. Britain’s growing teenage pregnancy rate, however, has prompted the proposal for change.

Baroness Gould of Potternewton, the chairman of the Government’s Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, wrote to the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice in 2007 to request a review of the scheduling restrictions on condom advertising, noting that Britain had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe and spiralling rates of sexually transmitted infections. Her group’s annual report had showed that young people believed television was one of the most effective ways of encouraging those of the same age group to use condoms.

Advertising chiefs have also examined figures in the House of Commons Library which show that, from 2002 to 2006, more than 11,000 under-16s had gonorrhoea, chlamydia, syphilis, herpes or genital warts diagnosed.

“The presence of condom advertisements on television continues to be a subject of complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, but numbers are very low,” the consultation document reports.

The document advises that public sensitivities must be balanced against “a public health problem that is clearly urgent”.

In her letter to the committee, Lady Gould argued that relaxing restrictions on sanitary protection had helped to increase familiarity with those products and that advertising now associated them with “healthy and active lifestyles.”

Michaela Aston, of the pregnancy crisis service Life, said: “This is awful. Pro-life charities have no money and pro-abortion charities have a lot. We will never be able to afford to advertise on television. The only thing we will see is abortion agencies targeting the young. Going alongside condom advertising throughout the day, it is just going to encourage young people to have sex.

“The message is that if they use condoms it will reduce teenage pregnancy, even though the last decade has shown that the opposite is true. The next thing we will see is free condoms in breakfast cereals.”

John Smeaton, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: “This is rather predictable on abortion, and condom advertisements throughout the day won’t help either. There is plenty of evidence to show that the more you promote easy access to birth control among young people, the higher the preg- nancy rate, the higher the abortion rate. This is not the solution to the problem.”

Andrew Brown, the chairman of the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice, said: “The UK advertising codes are widely recognised for setting a high bar for social responsibility. Our priority is to ensure that the rules remain relevant for the future so that consumers can continue to enjoy and trust the ads they see. Throughout this process, we sought the views of industry and policy makers and now we want to hear from all other interested parties, including the people that matter the most in advertising, the general public.”

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