Last year, high street stores, including Primark and Matalan, caused controversy when they decided to stock sexualised clothing aimed at children.
High street stores now have 18 months to comply to the new rules, otherwise new Government legislation will to introduced to deal with offending stores.
As part of the controversy, Primark were criticised for stocking padded bras aimed at girls as young as seven years old. A number of other clothing retailers were also found to be selling inappropriate clothing, such as t-shirts with slogans such as ‘porn star’ scrawled across the front.
In 2010 Mumsnet, a parental powerhouse, responded to the issue by launching a campaign called ‘Let Girls be Girls’ where they asked retailers to stop selling products which play upon, emphasise or exploit children’s sexuality. Channel 4 also joined the cause, launching its own Stop Pimping our Kids programme.
