Annie Lennox calls for age ratings on ‘pornographic’ music videos

The singer says music promos should be rated in the same way as films

Annie Lennox has renewed her call for age ratings on music videos.

The singer described the sexualised imagery of modern pop videos as “dark” and “pornographic” and called for more to be done to protect children watching them. While she did not mention any specific artists, Lennox fuels the ongoing debate sparked by Miley Cyrus’s performance at the MTV awards last month, during which she “twerked” with singer Robin Thicke. The performance was followed by a video for her single ‘Wrecking Ball’ which featured Cyrus swinging naked from a demolition ball and provoked Sinead O’Connor to write a letter warning her not to be exploited by the music industry.

“I’m all for freedom of expression,” she told BBC Radio 5 live, “but this is clearly one step beyond, and it’s clearly into the realm of porn…How do you stop your kids being exposed to it? It’s so powerful. You don’t want to see your seven-year-old girls twerking all over the place.”

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She added: “I have nothing against these artists, I was never bashing them…There’s nothing wrong with sexuality and sensuality and I think these artists are beautiful. And, in many ways, what they do is fantastic, but it needs to be age-appropriate.” Listen to the full interview here.

Earlier this month (October 6) Lennox wrote on her Facebook page that “if a performing artist has an audience of impressionable young fans and they want to present a soft porn video or highly sexualised live performance, then it needs to qualify as such and be X rated for adults only.”

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