Australian Parenting PSA banned. For being too real? You will want to see this.

In 2006, NAPCAN, Australia’s National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect created a profound and thought provoking 90-second public service announcement (PSA) titled Children See, Children Do. The spot depicts children mimicking the behaviors of the adults they are following. While I admit this is a very dark PSA, and watching the children mimic some of the disturbing behaviors is difficult, the ad is brilliant. Absolutely. Brilliant.  

The video starts out innocent enough with a child mimicking an adult walking through a town square talking on a mobile phone, but then the behaviors copied gradually intensify to smoking, racism, animal neglect and even domestic violence....

While there are posts all over the internet about how this PSA was actually banned in Australia for being too over the top, I have not found any real evidence proving that. So I emailed NAPCAN to find out the real story.  I received this back from a manager with NAPCAN...

"HI April,

We have received a couple of these emails mentioning that our Children See, Children Do community service announcement has been banned.  We are baffled by this and are not sure where it is coming from. 

As you mentioned it is a very powerful video, and has been used by Australian and International organisations including among others, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Div. of Violence Prevention in Atlanta. 

We provide this video for free to support those working in our area.  NAPCAN continue to use this video which is available on our websites, www.napcan.org.au and on our campaign site  along with a range of other NAPCAN produced CSA's.  

We will in fact be using a PG rated version throughout National Child Protection Week 2013,  1-7th September."

So as you can see, this video, Children See, Children Do, was NEVER banned.  And thank goodness for that!  This profound and thought provoking advert is timeless in it's message. I cannot say enough wonderful things about NAPCAN and the creators, because thanks to them thousands of lives have been touched and changed.

Today, my hope for posting this video on First Time Mom & Dad is that all who watch it will not only be moved and enlightened by it, but will be mindful of their behaviors around children. After all, they are our future, so don't screw them up.  

This NAPCAN Ad is trying to drive home is that Children See, Children Do.  Make YOUR Influence Positive. I am certain you will find that this video does exactly that. 

 

Credits  AGENCY: DDB Group Sydney, Australia Executive Creative Director: Speed Of Sound Creative Director: Steve Back Copywriter: Charlie Cook Art Director: Simon Johnson Agency Producer: Sean Ashcroft Account Supervisor: Shelley Marie-Sainte Director: Sean Meehan Producer: Sam Mcgarry Editor: Matt Eastwood

 The Australian government organization the Children’s Guardian were involved in filming to ensure that children were not exposed to harm in any way. The domestic violence scenes had adults and children filmed separately then placed together in postproduction. The scene with the child smoking had her cigarette and smoke added to her shot in postproduction.

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