In these dark days of music video depravity won’t someone please think of the children? Apparently somebody has, with the UK Government commissioning the Mothers’ Union to look into the issue of the sexualisation of children.

According to The Guardian, the head of the Mother’s Union Reg Bailey – who inexplicably is a man – has recommended that music videos should come with age ratings similar to those used for film.

Bailey wants these ratings to be shown every time a music video is played on television or online and would apply to both ‘raunchy’ images and lyrical content.

Speaking on BBC Radio, Bailey said “Parents are really concerned about the influence which music videos have on the behaviour of their children. A lot of [videos] are very raunchy.”

Bailey is also concerned about the “potential for harm of some urban music”, which he and the Mothers’ Union believe leads boys to think of girls as sex objects.

“This is not a question of interfering with artistic freedom,” he said. “It is simply saying … that if [videos] are not age-rated, parents and children can get a huge shock when they see stuff that they weren’t expecting to see.”

Bailey has some specific artists in his crosshairs including “pretty mainstream artists’ such as Lily Allen who he said produced songs that were unsuitable for youngsters who shouldn’t be exposed to her lyrics

“I would say that Lily Allen sticks out as one who sings very catchy singalong songs which a lot of parents hear their children singing along to and then realise quite what she’s singing about and the sort of language she’s using,” he said.

“There are some music artists like Kanye West who I think with some of the videos there they would normally have been rated either an 18 or R if they were seen in the cinema – but actually they’re exempted from rating at all.”

“And I’d like to see that go further. I’m not just talking about DVDs that are bought; I’m talking about the fact that most children look at these things in the online environment and I’d like to see the data that contains that age-rating embedded into the digital copy of that.”

So what do you think? Should music videos have a ratings system that applies both to television and online? Let us know in the comments below and by voting in our poll.

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