The leader of the Conservative Party has called for an end to the ‘inappropriate sexualisation’ of children.
Speaking to GMTV, Mr Cameron has unveiled a range of party policies aimed at giving children back their childhood.
‘We all know as parents, I have got two young children and there will be many watching this programme, that you do your best as parents but there is a lot of pester power going on.
‘What we are saying is that you can't cut children off from the commercial world, of course you can't, but we should be able to help parents more in terms of trying to make sure that our children get a childhood and that they are not subject to unnecessary and inappropriate commercialisation and sexualisation too young. This is what this should be about,’ he said.
He also said that parents should be able to complain via a specifically set-up website about offensive marketing tactics used by companies.
‘What we are saying is how can we help parents, so for instance, if a company is found guilty of inappropriate marketing to children, it shouldn't be able to bid for Government contracts for three years. I think that would be a significant deterrent.
‘Also, parents when they complain, they are going to have a new way of complaining online and see what other parents are complaining about. I think that will help parents feel 'I am not alone in this, I am not being left on my own to bring up my children properly, other people are helping me,’ Mr Cameron said.
‘The Lolita beds and the padded bras and the rest of it, in the end most of those products were withdrawn because of parental pressure, so let's help the parents to put that pressure on,’ he added.
In 2008, Woolworths withdrew a children’s bedroom furniture for young girls called Lolita – the same name as the 1955 Vladimir Nabokov novel about a man’s sexual obsession with his 12-year-old stepdaughter – following complaints from parents.
When Mr Cameron was asked whether he was acting too late, he said:
‘Not at all. I've been leader of the Conservative Party now for over four years. I made an early speech about this. Four years ago, I started talking about the problems of sexualisation of children.
‘I welcome that the Government are looking at it, they have lots of reviews, but we do need some actions and what we are talking about today are some specific actions that we think will make a real difference in helping parents to bring up their children.’
Ed Balls, Labour’s Children's Secretary, said the commercialisation and sexualisation of children is an issue he raised in the Children’s Plan two years ago when he took up his position as Children's Secretary.
In recent months, supermarkets have been criticised for selling padded bras and pole-dancing kits aimed at girls. Several school teachers have called for girls’ magazines to be given age ratings, arguing they ‘glamorise’ sexual promiscuity.