Monkeys No Longer Getting Their Nuts

"Lads" magazines to be moved out of reach of children.

Following content concerns, magazines targeted at “Lads” will be moved out of reach of children. With increasingly explicit content and covers, Lads’ magazines such as Nuts, Zoo and Loaded are to be moved higher up the shelves in newsagents around the country, according to new guidelines to be sent out this week by the Home Office. “We welcome these guidelines and were happy to take part in the process of drawing up the guidelines with our industry peers and colleagues,” says Sarah Ewing, Communications Director for EMAP, publisher of Zoo magazine. Ms Ewing adds that EMAP has its own guidelines for retailers, saying the publisher has “always left it to the judgement of the retailer to display and sell our magazines appropriately, and [the Home Office] guidelines reaffirm this advice.” The Home Office move follows complaints from MPs and campaigners about the increasingly explicit content on display. However, the guidelines have come after some newsagents have taken the initiative themselves. “We took steps ourselves to change the layout of our stores,” says Sarah Hodson, a WHSmith’s representative. “The aim was to put such magazines 1.3m above the floor, which is out of sight of children.” These new regulations will also affect tabloid newspapers, which often feature covers with scantily-clad women. However, some newsagents already deal with the issue. “We display newspapers in what’s called the News Cube, where papers are stacked vertically, instead of horizontally. This means lewd cover images are not immediately apparent to children,” adds Ms Hodson.