KEY POINTS:
We love business in this country. We are, says the World Bank, one of the most nurturing, most business-friendly countries in the world.
And that's fine with me. I just wish commerce was more of a friend to those of us raising children.
Growing evidence suggests some sectors should be considered enemies.
For example, last week a group of health researchers in the US released a study that showed that exposure to rap music videos that often portrayed black women as "hypersexual and amoral" and included content depicting violence, sexuality and drug and alcohol abuse led to increased alcohol abuse and promiscuity among young black girls.
It wasn't an isolated study. A report by the American Psychological Association warns: "The sexualisation of girls may not only reflect sexist attitudes, a societal tolerance of sexual violence, and the exploitation of girls and women, but may also contribute to these phenomena."
Which might explain the surge in sexist advertising, from the likes of Burger King and Tui beer to Noel Leeming.
Last month, Women's Forum Australia published an innovative new research paper called Faking It, reflecting the body of academic research on magazines, mass media and the sexual objectification of women.
With chapters headed, "The ideal woman: half-naked and sexually available", "Hate your body? We show you how", and "Everyone's doing it except you", Faking It highlighted the influence of magazines targeted at girls as young as 5, including the marketing of padded bras and g-strings to 8-year-olds, the sex advice given to teenagers on pleasing their boyfriends ("Be Brave. Relax and have a go") and the attitudes of some girls in one magazine that "sex is something you do when you feel like it and you have to do it well".
Says Faking It, "A recent review of research concludes that teenagers who were exposed to more sexy stuff through media were more likely to be permissive about sex, to think that everyone else was doing it, and to have sex at a younger age, and more often than other teenagers.
"The portrayal of women's image and women's sexuality in women's mags is often fake. One reason is that without advertisements, those magazines probably wouldn't exist.
"To sell products, advertisers need to make readers feel inferior, flawed, incomplete, or dissatisfied with their bodies, selves and lives.
"This pervasive theme, combined with the strong message that women should find and sexually satisfy a man, links women's sexuality with anxiety and insecurity, and a compulsion to spend money on a relentless quest to become 'perfect'."
In other words, making girls feel unhappy about their bodies is bad for girls but good for business.
It's a depressing picture. Says Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of The Body Project: "Contemporary girls seem to have more autonomy, but their freedom is laced with peril. Despite sophisticated packaging, many remain emotionally immature, and that makes it all the more difficult to withstand the sexually brutal and commercially rapacious society in which they grow up."
What's a concerned parent to do? One Australian mother has set up a lobby group called Kids Free to be Kids, which aims both to raise awareness among parents and to pressure businesses that target the very young.
Brumberg writes: "While adults are trying to let girls do their own thing, trying not to 'interfere', advertisers are doing exactly that - and not always with individual girls' best interests at heart".
We might reflect on this as we ponder the supposed elevation of female Kiwis to the dubious title of world's most sexually promiscuous women, or indeed the new measures announced last week to control youth drinking.
Among those who felt the changes didn't go far enough was the Drug Foundation, which complained that they left control of alcohol marketing in the hands of the media and advertising industries.
It's worth considering that we didn't have brand-name liquor advertising on TV and radio before 1992, when it was given the go-ahead by the Cabinet (since which time teenage consumption has doubled); that many countries, including Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and France, already have such bans; and that research both here and overseas shows a link between advertising and the amount of alcohol consumed by teenagers.
My teenager and her friends know by heart the hazards of smoking and unhealthy eating, but next to nothing about alcohol-related hazards.
Only this week, another study from the UK highlighted the impact of "casual alcoholism" among British women, who are dying of alcohol-related diseases at almost twice the rate as at the beginning of the 1990s.
Who thinks of this when confronted with the barrage of sexy, funny, cool liquor ads, easily the best on TV? Industry-funded moderation campaigns, which get a tiny fraction of the millions expended on promotion, can't compete.
And neither can most parents.
