With the ever-increasing number of computers in households around the country, many parents are aware of the need to monitor their young children's access to certain internet sites, be they sites with adult content or chat-rooms where information for personal details is unneccessarily requested.
So what happens when a magazine is distributed for free, which contains material of an adult nature, and which can be picked up off the shelf by anyone, including small children? Recently, The Buzz Magazine, which began publishing in May, received a formal complaint via solicitor Mary Tobin of Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, on behalf of concerned parents about one of the articles in its August issue.
The Buzzis published in Wexford and distributed free throughout the southeast, via newsagents and supermarkets, particularly Tesco. On its website's homepage, it declares: "We decided it was high time to get serious about socialising in the southeast and we feel it's our duty and privilege to produce a publication that reflects the lifestyles and interests of the young people of the region."
The article which provoked complaints from parents was entitled "Fellatio", and flagged under the heading of "Sexual Wellbeing". It was followed by an article entitled "Ladies Pleasure - Vibrators", also under the same heading of "Sexual Wellbeing", along with details of where one could buy these products on the internet. The fellatio article was graphic and accompanied by suggestive photographs, one of which depicted a woman with a banana in her mouth.
Neither article was flagged on the cover, or included on the contents page. It was this fact, along with the adult content of the articles and the fact that under-18 children had picked them up, that provoked the formal parental response, along with a request to remove any remaining copies of the August issue from circulation.
Sharon Busher is co-editor of The Buzz, and is adamant that the magazine sees its target audience as adult. "We set out to attract the 18-28 readership," she says. She accepts that the magazine is freely available through the southeast in supermarkets, newsagents and cafes. "At the moment, it is free, so we can really put it anywhere we want, including places like cafes; places where we think our target audience will be."
Busher acknowledges that she received complaints about the content of the August issue. "We had already decided to drop that section, the sexual wellbeing section, as we felt it wasn't a section we could develop on." She defends the fact that there was adult content in a free magazine which could be accessed by underage readers.
"The way we looked at it," she says, "is that there is no ban on young girls buying teen magazines in shops, many of which have articles on sex tips. It's true that the article wasn't flagged, but would it be okay to have that article in the magazine if you had to pay €2 for it?
"You can access these kind of articles in lots of other magazines. Would an 11-year-old be stopped in a shop from buying More magazine, which has a section on sex tips?"
More, a fortnightly British magazine which focuses on celebrity gossip and fashion, describes its target reader as: "in her early 20s and probably in her first job, is a shopaholic and loves spending the money she earns on the latest clothes, make-up and music, as well as nights out on the town with her mates.She is passionate about fashion, beauty, celebrities and men."
More may well see its target reader as being in her 20s, but the issue of the age of the consumer who actually buys such magazines is much trickier.
Meanwhile - although it is often the case that out-of-date copies of free publications can lie around for some time - Busher confirms that all copies of the August issue of The Buzz have now been removed from circulation.
"Any that were left, we took them away when we restocked by putting our September issue on the shelves."
