Retail giant Tesco will change its newspaper displays to make them child friendly after campaigners fought for indecent images to be hidden.
The store is re-designing its newspaper stands so that only the names will be visible alongside the units.
The campaign group, Child’s Eyes, was founded by Kath McGuinness and aims to protect children from sexualisation and commercialisation while encouraging the government to develop new legislation.
The change.org petition received 25,000 asking the government to make it illegal to display porn in areas where children are.
Ms McGuinness said: “We can take on large corporations if enough people stand up and say something is wrong.
“This is a huge victory parents that wouldn’t normally be heard.”
The mother of one continued to explain that her campaign was not aimed at limiting press freedom or restricting material from adults but solely about responsibly displaying around children.
The Children’s Commissioner published the report Basically, porn is everywhere in 2013 which revealed that children exposed to sexualised imagery can experience detrimental effects on their psychological and sexual development.
The report also identified that children are ‘more accepting of violence against women if they are exposed to sexualised imagery’.
Professor Kevin Browne, forensic psychologist at the University of Nottingham, said: “The first step in accepting and perpetrating violence against women is to view women as dehumanised sex objects.”
In 2013 child support lines saw a 65% increase in boys calling for advice after becoming traumatised by watching violent porn online.
And 75% of teenage girls have reported emotional violence in their relationships.
Claire Lilley, policy advisor at the NSPCC, said: “We know that easy access to sexual material is warping young people’s views of what is ‘normal’ or acceptable behaviour.”
Ms McGuinness started the campaign after she was shopping in a Co-Op supermarket and noticed her four-year-old son looking at an up-skirt shot of a woman.
After their recent Tesco success, Child Eyes has been contacted by angry parents requesting another campaign to guard internet porn with age restrictions.
Picture courtesy of torbakhopper HE DEAD, with thanks
