Stockport journalist's petition calling for Daily Mail to 'stop sexualising children' hits 17,000 signatures in hours





A petition slamming the Daily Mail for sexualising young girls has reached more than 17,000 signatures in a matter of hours, after being set up by a Stockport man.

Owen Jones, a columnist for the Independent who grew up in Stockport, created the petition blasting the way the Daily Mail portrays underage girls in its stories.

The page was up for less than seven hours when it reached the milestone, calling on the newspaper to overhaul editorial guidelines with regards to reporting on young people.


And now Salford Mayer Ian Stewart has waded in on the debate by backing the petition and tweeting the link to sign it.

He then wrote: "Classic Mail hypocrisy > Paris Jackson shares swimsuit snap after enjoying the holidays in Hawaii."

Paris Jackson, Michael Jackson's only daughter, was pictured posing in underwear but is only 15 years old.


Two of the figures mentioned were reality stars Kylie and Kendall Jenner (pictured above) from Keeping Up With The Kardashians, whose coverage by the Daily Mail was slammed by the New Statesman in 2012.


The petition said: “The Daily Mail and MailOnline have a sinister track record of presenting underage girls in a deeply inappropriate and sexualised manner.”


Celebrities have also voiced their support, with actor Steven Fry tweeting: “Seriously, read the reasons for the petition- I thought the Daily Mail couldn’t revolt me more, and yet…”

James Bisset, from Manchester, who signed the petition, said: "Astonishing that a newspaper can so explicitly and routinely treat children as titillating objects and suggest too that they know what they're doing."

Lisa Cusick, another signature from Manchester, said: "I have a daughter and am disgusted by their overtly sexualised portrayal of young girls and misogyny against women in general."


http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/co...-children-hits

DEATH at this thread flopping

daily fail and basically all media is way too obsessed with Paris,and specially posting private pics of her

Good, DM is evil and disgusting

Great!

The problem is in sexualizing young girls when they shouldn't, not young girls for wearing bikinis,etc.

Well done.