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Public Petitions Committee 08 March 2011

08 Mar 2011 · S3 · Public Petitions Committee

Item of business

Current Petitions

Magazines and Newspapers (Display of Sexually Graphic Material) (PE1169)

David Primrose (George Street Research) Watch on SPTV

Certainly, convener. To put the research into a bit of context, the industry’s guidelines for the display of publications that are referred to as lads mags are: that they should not be displayed “at children’s eye-level or below, to ensure that they are not in the direct sight and reach of children”;that they should not be displayed adjacent to the display of children’s titles and comics; and,“Where display space restraints preclude the above, that titles with front covers that may cause concern are part-overlapped with other titles”.We did 152 mystery shops and spoke to 60 retailers by telephone. We discovered that every store displayed lads mags and that the majority of the displays—76 per cent—were wall displays, so, in theory, there is scope for the retailers to display them quite high up in three quarters of instances. In the majority of the stores, the magazines were laid out horizontally, so they were displayed at a set level.The guidelines—and, indeed, the petition—use the term “children’s eye-level”, but we asked at what height the lads mags were actually displayed. About 16 per cent of them were displayed at less than 1m high and 49 per cent, which is nearly half, were displayed at 1.5m high. I have brought along a tape measure to demonstrate exactly what that means. We have 16 per cent displayed at around my waist height and 49 per cent displayed at 1.5m, which is around my shoulder height. Therefore, 65 per cent of the magazines that are on display are displayed at or below 1.5m.The guidelines say that if the magazines are not in displays, they should be overlapped. The major supermarkets and the franchise-type confectionery, tobacconist and newsagent stores are most likely to do that. However, it was interesting to note that there was no attempt to overlap them in any of the forecourt retailers—the petrol stations—that we examined and, indeed, they were all relatively low down.The retailers for the majority—69 per cent—of the lads mags that were observed at or below 1.5m had made no attempt to hide the front covers, which were clearly visible.It may be that some of the guidelines that use the term “children’s eye-level” are not specific enough. We did a couple of in-depth interviews with some major retailers and got sight of some of their in-house guidelines, which talk about 1.2m as a minimum display height. However, it is in the eye of the beholder whether a height other than 1.2m is children’s eye level, and it depends what age of child we are talking about.As I said, we spoke to 60 retailers as part of the project. Most of them—80 per cent—said that they were aware that there were guidelines on how magazines should be displayed and three quarters of them said that they were aware of the guidelines that should apply to lads mags. A fair number of them had written policies on the matter, although independent retailers—newsagents, really—were less likely to have a policy. The majority of the people we spoke to said, “Yes, we’re aware of the guidelines. No, there’s no problem with complying with them—it’s relatively easy for us to do so.” So there is an apparent disconnect in what we are finding.We have looked at measurable heights. It is a matter of opinion what a child’s eye level is, but we have evidence of what we have seen out there. Set against that, there are the retailers’ guidelines and their belief that they are, in the main, doing the right thing and sticking to the guidelines. Therefore, our conclusion from the mystery shoppers and the interviews with retailers is that a lot of magazines are being displayed at heights of between 1m and 1.5m, in full view, with no attempt being made to cover them up. However, most of the retailers in whose premises that is happening believe—or at least say that they believe—that they are complying with the guidelines.

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Public Petitions Committee 08 March 2011

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