According to the NFRN: Despite the PPA apparently having made a pledge to the Reg Bailey inquiry on the Sexualisation of Young People, that publishers of "Lads’ Mags" would make modest boards freely available to retailers, an investigation this week by the NFRN suggests that the industry is barely paying lip-service to its promise.
According to the NFRN’s investigation, both Smiths News and Menzies Distribution can make branded modesty boards freely available for Nuts and Zoo magazine, via Marketforce/Frontline, but what of other titles such as Zip from Oohyeah Ltd, FHM from Bauer Media, Loaded from Loaded Media Ltd, or Maxim from Alpha Media Publishing inc. which are being offered no such protection?
Smiths News has advised that non-branded modesty boards can be provided to retailers at a cost, but this is hardly in keeping with the pledge that these would be freely available for all "Lads’ Mags". It also begs the question, “why should retailers pay?” After all, it is the publisher’s decision to splash lurid sexual imagines on the front covers of their magazines, so if the Government wants young children protected from the sight of these titles on retailers’ shelves, surely it is the publishers’ responsibility to ensure that modesty boards are freely available.
Commenting on the result of the NFRN’s investigation, National President, Colin Fletcher said: “Once again it is retailers who are let down by the lack of responsibility shown by some publishers for the offence their titles cause to parents with young children. My members are in the front line of customer complaints and do their best to abide by industry codes to ensure these titles are displayed in the manner recommended, but any display guidelines can only have a limited effect. If retailers wish to operate family friendly businesses and respond to parental concern about the sexual images on the front of “Lads’ Mags” then the least publishers can do is to make modesty boards freely available via wholesalers. The alternative may be de-listing and no one wants to contemplate that, or do we?”
