Day 309 - 03 Dec 96 - Page 42
1 they were being persuaded to buy something rather than
2 being entertained?
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: One could say that there was a danger in it, yes.
5 I think I would agree, one could say that. Whether one
6 would say that, of course, is another question entirely.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: I know, speaking on the evidence at least of only
11 very small children, that piece of research which
12 I cross-examined Miss Dibb about seems to demonstrate
13 fairly well that even a four-year-old may know the
14 difference between a television programme and a commercial
15 shown in the course of it. I would be very, very cautious
16 about that last proposition of your Lordship's simply
17 because from experience, both as a child and a parent, one
18 knows -- members of the jury as it were -- that this
19 supposed gullibility of children is in fact a myth.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know. My next question was to what
22 extent can I take my own experience?
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: You have to, this is where the 12/13ths of the
25 judge are so important. I do not have 12 jurors here, if
26 I did I would be appealing to their respective experiences
27 as parents and erstwhile children to delve into their
28 experience and recollection and ask themselves the
29 question, is it really right that children from, let us
30 say, four and upwards are as gullible as the jury, if I may
31 call them that, would suggest that they are, and the answer
32 I would suggest is plainly, no, they are not.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The situation might be that, whether they are
35 gullible or not, they are more susceptible than adults.
36 They do not think of all the features, they do not think of
37 how much it costs, or the extent to which, if at all, it is
38 good for them, it just appears attractive and therefore
39 they put pressure on their parents; and therefore the
40 parents go off and do something which, left to their own
41 judgment without the nagging child, they would not have
42 done.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: Absolutely right, and if I suggested that children
45 are just small sized adults, that is not what I mean at
46 all; all I mean to say is people like Miss Dibb greatly
47 exaggerate the susceptibility of children, their inability
48 to distinguish reality from fiction, advertisements from
49 programmes, and so on. I am not suggesting at all that
50 they have all the equipment which the adult target of the
51 advertising has. The saving grace, if I can put it like
52 that, as I have noticed somewhere else in this submission,
53 is that the children do not actually make the decision.
54 They do not have the money, they do not have the train
55 fare, or the bus fare, they do not have the old bicycle.
56 They have to rely on the parents.
57
58 That is really, perhaps, in the end the key to it.
59 Whatever degree of susceptibility one thinks small children
60 may have, one has to assume that the majority of parents of
