The Australian Christian Lobby today congratulated the City of Stirling Council for moving to modify its Advertising Signs Policy in the light of the debacle with the Osborne Park OnlyFans billboard.
ACL’s Western Australia Director, Peter Abetz said “It is encouraging that the councillors at the City of Stirling voted unanimously (5/07/2023) to change their Advertising Signs Policy to ensure outdoor advertising in future is not offensive and in keeping with prevailing community standards.
“The failure of Ad Standards to deem the billboard unacceptable after receiving over 350 complaints, is a clear failure of its obligation to uphold “prevailing community standards” as required by its Code of Ethics and associated practice note.
“The self-regulatory scheme of the Ad Standards Panel is a case of the fox guarding the henhouse. Self-regulation has failed.
“Children and adults should be able to enjoy the outdoors without being bombarded with sexualised advertising. There are ratings for movies, TV shows, games, and publications to help parents protect their children from inappropriate images and concepts they’re not mature enough to be exposed to.
“Given the ongoing failure of Ad Standards and of state and federal governments to ensure outdoor advertising is not offensive and in keeping with community expectations, it has fallen to local government to take action,” Mr Abetz said.
