Some people claim that they can detect a definite pattern of suggestive songs and unsuitable thrillers in the programmes.  In times like the present the Service should critically re-examine its programmes in order to remove any wrongful impression that might be created, either by a too frequent repetition of items where sex and crime are prominent, or by the possibility of a meaning being taken out of them which was not intended.

The Broadcasting Service should similarly review its ideas about children’s listening hours and rearrange its classified times accordingly.

When crime serials are broadcast it should be made obvious that crime does not pay.

A married woman might well be included on the auditioning panel.

Even if the Service does all these things, the major responsibility will still rest upon the parents, who should select their children’s programmes and see that their listening hours are reasonably restricted.

=(4) Press Advertising=

An examination of advertisements in New Zealand newspapers during recent years clearly shows how far the bounds of propriety have been extended.  What was a generation ago considered improper is now generally accepted as a subject for display.  Advertisements, more and more based on sex attraction, horror, and crime, occupy a large and increasing proportion of all advertising.  Because this trend is obviously objectionable to a section of the community, such advertising must partially fail in its object of attracting.  In addition, this advertising may be harmful to those juveniles and adolescents with whom this Committee is primarily concerned.  Advertisers should, in their own interests, raise their standards—­perhaps by establishing a voluntary Advisory Council similar to that in the United Kingdom.

=(5) Television=

Although television is not yet available in New Zealand, its introduction is inevitable.  Overseas reports of its effects on children, adolescents, and even adults indicate that plans to minimize any harmful effects in New Zealand should be made without delay.

The arrival of another visual and auditory influence will add weight to the suggestion made to the Committee that liaison should be established between all the various censoring authorities.

* * * * *

Objectionable publications, films, broadcasting, and television have been the subject of expert appraisal in many countries.  The Committee has made its recommendations in this section of the report fully aware that many authorities can describe these matters as no more than secondary influences in the causation of juvenile delinquency.

To what degree these things are directly causative no one can say.  Their influence is imponderable.  But whatever their influence, the Committee is firmly of the opinion that practical measures to control what is offensive to many would be an indication of a renewed concern for the moral welfare of young people.  The result would be the replacement of undesirable material with something much better.