Cameron hits out at magazines

Delivering his keynote speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Cameron cited magazines and websites as two forms of media which are making children "insecure about how they look" adding they "should stop treating children like adults".

While Cameron didn't name specific titles, some magazine titles have been a long-standing bug bear for the Tory Party.

Michael Gove, the party's education spokesman, has previously hit out at titles such as IPC's Nuts and Bauer's Zoo, which he argued have been responsible for encouraging women as "lasciviously uncomplicatedly available" sex objects.

The latest salvo by Cameron came in a wide-ranging speech in which he pledged to defend "family, community, country" and set out his vision for "a responsible society" under the Conservatives.

Promising to reign in the size of government, he described "how good things could be" if Government was cut back to help "put Britain back on her feet."

However, he did not make any comments regarding the government's plans for ad spend or marketing activity. Reportedly, Labour plans to trim government ad spend to help save money and pay for some new services.

In response, the PPA said: "Magazine publishers take their responsibilities to their readers very seriously. We have a specific committee - the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel - which meets regularly to discuss these types of issues.

"It is sometimes easy to forget that there are many hundreds of articles published every year in magazines which provide advice on health-related issues to a wide range of readers.

"There are many and complex factors that contribute to this issue and the magazine industry welcomes the chance to engage in further discussion with the stakeholders."