ASA Adjudication on National Society For The Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Ad

A national press ad, for the NSPCC, stated "1 in 6 children in the UK are sexually abused. Help stop it."

Issue

Six complainants challenged whether the claim "1 in 6 children in the UK are sexually abused" was misleading and could be substantiated.

CAP Code

Response

The NSPCC sent us a copy of their study entitled 'Child Maltreatment in the United Kingdom' (2000) from which the 1 in 6 children figure was derived.  They said that study randomly selected 2,860 subjects between the ages of 18 and 24 years to ask about their childhood experiences and respondents were asked to comment on abuse retrospectively to counter the ethical problems of interviewing a child about such an emotive and sensitive topic, whilst maintaining a close proximity to the incidents to ensure subjects gave an accurate account.  The NSPCC said the test was conducted in two parts: the first comprising of an interview and the second a computer assisted test.  They believed this ensured that the responses elicited were honest and allowed the details of the abuse to be disclosed in a confidential manner.  

The NSPCC explained that they defined sexual abuse as an act against respondents' wishes when they were under the age of 16, or an act perpetrated by someone five or more years older than the child when that child was aged 12 and under; consensual acts between age peers were not rated as abuse.  They said the report's definition of sexual abuse encompassed both contact abuse constituting any physical act involving genitalia and other private areas and sexual kissing, and hugging and non-contact acts including exposure of genitalia or private areas to children, exposure to pornography and subjection to watch a sexual act.  The NSPCC explained that this definition of sexual abuse was shared by the Department for Education and Skills and their 'Working Together' strategy to safeguard the welfare of children.  The NSPCC strongly maintained that non-contact abuse should be defined as 'sexual abuse.'

The NSPCC pointed out that the report concluded that the total number who were abused or aged 12 and under and subject to a contact or non-contact sexual act, was 16% or 1 in 6 children.  They said steps had been taken to avoid double counting and a "borderline" category of consensual sexual activity involving 13- to 15-year-olds had been excluded.  They said the figure of 16%, or 1 in 6 children, was therefore a conservative estimate.

The NSPCC said, although the study was conducted in 1998/99 and published in 2000, the report's findings were still held in high regard, cited in journals and Parliamentary hearings, and were the best estimate of the prevalence of child abuse in the UK.  They also said that the NSPCC were conducting a new study which would be published at the end of 2009.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the evidence the NSPCC provided was published in 2000 and, although we acknowledged that there were not frequent publications in this particular area,   we considered the claim "1 in 6 children in the UK are sexually abused" was likely to be seen to be derived from current figures and represented the prevalence of ongoing sexual abuse at the time the ad appeared.  

We were also concerned that the ad did not clarify the definition of sexual abuse on which the claim was based.  We considered that a significant number of readers might infer from the claim that one in six children were subject to physical abuse, whereas we noted the definition of sexual abuse taken from the study included a wide range of behaviours, including contact and non-contact activity.  We concluded that, because of the length of time that had elapsed since the publication of the study, and because readers were likely to infer from the use of the word are that ongoing abuse of one in six children, the ad was likely to mislead.  

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)