Why this pop-porn will damage a generation of children

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Mike Stock, of legendary 80s songwriting trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman, is worried about the sexual imagery and innuendos in modern popThe recent final of Britains Got Talent was broadcast at 7.30pm on a Saturday evening, featured two finalists who were 11 and 12 years old, and was watched by millions of children of about the same age or even younger. Yet the producers still thought it appropriate that the guest-star Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of the raunchy band the Pussycat Dolls, was dressed in a knicker-skimming mini-dress, bumping and grinding her hips suggestively through her latest hit, while singing Come on baby, put your hands on my body ... right there. Her whispering I like it dirty seemed as unsurprising as it was superfluous, and was, suffice to say, wholly inappropriate for the programmes family audience.Ms Scherzingers gyrations prompted me to voice my concerns about the insidious impact the music industry was having on our children that the lyrics of pop songs had become too sexualised, that music videos had effectively turned into soft-core pornography, and that the combined impact of both is almost certainly having a hugely damaging effect on our children.

Wrong note: Nicole Scherzinger makes a guest appearance on Britain's Got Talent

Rihanna gives a raunchy performance at this year's Billboard Music Awards in Las VegasIve been overwhelmed by the feedback Ive received from countless people, many of them worried parents, who said that they agreed with me wholeheartedly.It seems that society - even the most liberal-minded sections of it - is finally waking up to the huge damage that this flood of highl! y sexual ised images is doing to our children.

Ive been overwhelmed by the feedback Ive received from countless people, many of them worried parents, who said that they agreed with me wholeheartedly.

Pop stars Christina Aguilera and Rihannas X-rated routines at the 2010 X Factor final - and Ofcoms shameful report on the matter, which infamously concluded that the dance routines were at the limit of acceptability for a programme broadcast before the 9pm watershed - caused a public outcry, and rightly so. The recent Government report which highlighted the sexualisation of childhood - an inquiry sparked by the growing trend for padded bras for five-year-old girls and high-heeled sling-backs for eight-year-olds - met with nods of widespread agreement. Faced with a growing army of ten-year-old girls who move and dress like hookers, the moral tide in this country is turning.

Rihanna straddles a fan as she performs a lap dance on stage during a show earlier this month

Too much: Christina Aguilera's dancers performed a highly suggestive routine on The X FactorThe problem is that our big terrestrial broadcasters dont seem to have noticed. As someone whos been in the music industry for over 40 years, written some 400 hits and worked with artists such as Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, I long for the days when pop music was for everyone; when it filled the musical gap between childhood and adulthood.

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Songs such I Should Be So Lucky and Never Gonna Give You Up may have had the odd moment of cheekiness, but they were, first and foremost, fun, could be listened to (and sung alongwith) by anyone, and never over-stepped the mark.

Cheeky: But Kylie Minogue's act has never been overtly sexualNow, however, an entire generation of young girls, some as young as eight or nine, is growing up transfixed by the writhings and thrustings of performers such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna, singing along to lines such as Sex in the air, I dont care, I love the smell of it, and understandably convinced of one thing - that sex sells. Just as worrying is the impact the same material must be having on young boys. What is happening now doesnt just undo all the good work done by the feminists of the 70s, it drags us almost back to the Stone Age. Women, as seen through the eyes of the music industry, have become little more than sex objects again.And what a surprise, the industry doing the damage, the music industry, is absolutely dominated by men. Katy Perry may have kissed a girl, but only because men thought they could make money out of it. And,sadly, they were right, which was one of the reasons I wrote and produced a childrens musical, The Go! Go! Go! Show, about exactly this sort of problem, in Londons West End last year.Therecent report for the Government, written by the chief executive of theMothers Union, Reg Bailey, is a decent and serious-minded piece of work, but by laying the blame onto the record labels, the fashion industry and the magazine publishers, I believe he got the idea right but the targets wrong.

For me, it is the broadcasters - and by that I mean the main terrestrial broadcasters, the BBC and ITV - who have to put their house in order. Even today, five years after Top of the Pops was cancelled and when a single download costs just 79p, it is still impossible to have a hit single without support from these terrestrial broadcasters.So if they said no to the pelmet-skirts, the bump-and-grind routines and the suggestive lyrics, the music business would soon fall into line, as, in turn, would the fashion and publishing industries. Instead, the BBC and ITV just seem to ! accept t he sort of outrageous material that once graced only gangsta rap videos, then migrated into mainstream R&B (which nowadays has nothing to do with rhythm and blues but merely denotes pop music of urban origin), and is now, apparently, considered suitable for prime-time Saturday night viewing.

Bad example: Singers Britney Spears (left) and Rihanna embrace during a music awards ceremony last month.Well, the TV bosses couldnt be more wrong, or more out of step with the public mood. Much of the most sexualised material originates from the U.S., where, paradoxically, thanks to tighter regulation and a high regard for so-called family values, it would struggle to be shown in many states on mainstream TV. But here, our hapless broadcast executives - cowed by the perceived competition of website YouTube and the 24-hour music TV channels - seem convinced that anything goes. In this wrong-headed belief, they are aided and abetted by a regulatory body, Ofcom, which can intervene only once a complaint has been made. In other words, Ofcom can act only after the material has been broadcast.

In time-honoured tradition, sex is beingused to sell something - music. But what is new and frightening is that, this time, sex is being used to sell music to children. That has to stop, and quickly.

When Tony Blairs government created Ofcom in 2003, they disbanded five regulatory bodies, including the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Broadcasting Standards Agency. Crucially, in creating Ofcom, they killed off vital regulatory bodies which screened content prior to broadcast. In merely responding to complaints, Ofcom is just a passive observer. While it is important to have an organisation which viewers can complain to, what can it really do about a programme that everybody has already seen? British broadcasters must also rediscover their moral courage and wake up to what is b! eing don e here. In time-honoured tradition, sex is being used to sell something - music. But what is new and frightening is that, this time, sex is being used to sell music to children. That has to stop, and quickly.Both the BBC and ITV have got to bring back some broadcasting standards and police them themselves - as indeed they used to. Some 20 years ago, I recall making a music video that was going to be shown on Saturday morning television, and in which a box of matches was visible at the edge of a shot. In no uncertain terms, I was firmly told that the video would not be shown by the BBC while that box of matches remained in sight. So, of course, we cut it out.Thats what the BBC and ITV executives have to do now: look at the choreography and the costumes, listen to the lyrics, and ask themselves some simple questions. Do I want my eight-year-old daughter to move like that? Do I want her singing along to lyrics like that? Do I feel comfortable watching this with her?Pop music used to be an innocent joy. Now theres a real danger that its cynical and relentless addiction to sex could damage our children in a way that may last their entire lifetime - defining not just how they see themselves, but each other, too.Its time to put the lingerie, the stilettos and the mucky lyrics away - and to rediscover the simple pleasures of pop.