Children Deserve Better Report Case Study

Background

There is a misconception prevalent in society that children are harmed by nudity. Most people, especially when they stop to think about it, realise how unjustified that is but they often lack the knowledge and confidence to challenge the myths.

Children need to be brought up and kept safe in an environment of openness and body honesty. Wholesome, honest and open body attitudes leads to better outcomes, often vastly better, across a wide range of indicators. Prudery, not openness or nudity, harms children. Children must be innocent, not ignorant.

The issues we faced

• Societal attitudes that prevent children from accessing information essential to their well-being.
• Societal attitudes that fail to foster wholesome attitudes.
• Child protection agencies actively promoting prudery.
• Swimming pool managers refusing to allow children to attend naturist swimming sessions, not even with their parents.
• Prejudice in general.

The action we took

We researched and wrote a document that aims to draw together the evidence regarding children and nudity. The evidence base is is not extensive but tt was possible to conclude that there is no credible evidence of harm and significant evidence of benefit.

Positive outcomes

We have received many compliments and statements of gratitude from both naturists and non-naturists, both in the UK and overseas.

Negative outcomes

We are not aware of any negative outcomes.

Lessons learnt

• We should not need to be concerned about pornography but some people are unable or unwilling to distinguish between nudity and pornography. That makes it extremely difficult to hold a sensible discussion.
• British Naturism needs to actively promote high quality research and we have started to do so.
• This document will need to be updated regularly as further evidence becomes available.