Fines

The Australian Christian Lobby believes that fines for breaching the ethics code and for failing to comply with an Advertising Standards Board determination should be introduced.

The Advertising Standards Board is currently toothless. There are no penalties for advertisers who have been determined to breach the Advertisers Code of Ethics. In addition, there are no penalties for advertisers who disregard a determination by the ASB and fail to remove the offending advertisement.

Unfortunately, advertisers can, and do, ignore community guidelines with no penalty. There is absolutely no incentive to comply with any standard – in fact, the opposite; they often receive free media attention from concerned citizens who take the time to complain.

The Centre for Human Dignity believes that the self-regulatory approach of the industry is failing to uphold community standards around sex, sexuality, and nudity.

We will strive to see:

1: Stronger codes of ethics to a ‘G’ rating standard
2: Fines for breaches of the codes
3: A code that puts the best interests of the child first