Probe into sexual attacks amongst school children

June 14, 2016January 21, 2017Leave a comment

Last April (2016) The Women and Equalities Committee launched the first government probe into the scale and impact of sexual harassment and connected violence in our UK schools.

Concerns have been raised that teachers are not able to protect children from this kind of behaviour. Sexual offences in schools were revealed that 5,500 took place over a 3 year period and that this figure included 600 rapes.

School age girls are having to change their own behaviour to counteract sexual bullying, this has included wearing trousers to school. This measure is stop having their underwear exposed by others revealing them which is seen as ‘normal’ behaviour nowadays.

Online pornography use has been cited as a concerning factor saying that it confuses and clouds issues surrounding consent for young people.

Mark & Claire say, “We sincerely hope the the government and schools will start taking this more seriously as we believe that the evidence is overwhelming regarding the link between online pornography and the increase in sexual harassment. Unfortunately it’s only when something tragically goes wrong that people wake up to the reality that we have a very big problem and something needs to be done now! LYP is trying to tackle this but feels like the problem is so massive we need more people onboard…if you’re interested in helping us, message us or send us an email office@loveyoungpeople.com“.

Further evidence will be taken for Ofsted over the next few months to find out whether schools need to take evasive action.

What do you think? Have you been the subject of sexual harassment or violence at the hands of your classmates?

Jack Wills ads banned. Where do you stand?

June 10, 2016January 21, 2017Leave a comment

Underwear and clothing designer, Jack Wills’ has had a new catalogue and ad campaign run into trouble. The watchdog has banned them from circulation deeming the photos and sales copy ‘sexually forward’ as opposed to ‘flirtatious’.

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Representatives from the brand argued that they target18 to 24-year-old university students and not younger teenagers, adding that the catalogue was mailed out in a sealed paper envelope and the online site has an under-18 restriction for signing up to receive communications.

Jack wills is not the first and won’t be the last to advertise with young sexy models lying on a bed. This part is true! But is it right for them to do that and are they being cheap by resorting to the oldest advertising trick in the world? Perhaps if those models were hanging by the swimming pool dressed in swim wear I wouldn’t be bothered. So my conclusion would be that it’s the context that is suggesting something sexual and perhaps it might encourage young people to be sexual or to take risks in their sexual behaviour? This is purely subjective and perhaps jack wills knows that’s hard to prove. However they’re not naive and I’m sure they know that this is treading a fine line with advertising decency and moral behaviour young people but I have feeling they won’t be the last company to do that. After all sex does sell products.

Here are a few of the photos (will add some in). Please comment below if you think Jack Wills have been unduly singled out, where other brands run roughshod over taste and taboo boundaries.

Sex Box & The Pornification of Us

May 30, 2016January 21, 2017Leave a comment

Love Young People (LYP) found this thoughtful article about the ‘pornification’ of our society. The think piece revolves in part around a new Channel 4 TV show called Sex Box in which candidates can experience sexual firsts – and deal with couple problems by having sex in an enclosed box. The author, Rachel Gardner of Romance Academy discusses a time when there was a mysterious allure to sex but that nowadays porn has put everything up front and centre for ridicule and frank, emotionless scrutiny. This show also celebrates exhibitionism and it’s not alone. Even emojis have been pornified, so what chance do our young people have to navigate their own sexual course?

Mark & Claire say –

Rachel Gardner has provided us with a moral challenge. How do we approach the idea of sex without ruining the intimacy?

Clearly, we all know that sex is more than just physical exercise, it’s all a lot more intricate than that. Therefore here at LYP, we believe sex to be a very emotionally powerful and sacred experience that should be respected. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t learn more about it through exploration – we also need to talk openly about it.

However, what the porn and sex industry tries to do is to remove or destroy the intimacy and reduce us to using each other like products in an ever increasing consumer culture.

Perhaps the media is merely a puppet to the current values of society. Think about it.

You can read the full article here: link

News: Addiction

May 22, 2016January 21, 2017Leave a comment

I took a read of this interesting article by Maia Szalavitz called the ‘The Myth of Addiction’. It tries to dispel the myth that only one sort of personality is more likely to end up being an addict. Instead any one of us could end up being an addicted to something. I wonder if it’s partly to do with environment as well? for example did you know that children in care are 30% more likely to end up in prison!

In a short, it asks us to reassess our perception of what makes us addicts. One of the conclusions it asks us to consider is that, “An addictive personality, is if you will, multifaceted. It doesn’t really exist as an entity of its own.”

The media portrays addicts as ‘fiends with anti-social habits’. Only 18% of addicts, for example, have a personality disorder characterised by lying, stealing, lack of conscience, and manipulative antisocial behavior. This is more than four times the rate seen in typical people, but it still means that 82% of us don’t fit the media’s caricature of addiction.

Follow this link to read the whole article and feel free to comment.

Welcome To LYP

October 3, 2015Leave a comment