Woman Says Magazines In Checkout Aisles Too Racy

What's "hot off the presses" is a little too hot for one Tulsa mother.<br>She believes some magazines are hurting children's morals, and wants the magazines with racy covers moved out of the checkout

Wednesday, August 18th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

What's "hot off the presses" is a little too hot for one Tulsa mother.
She believes some magazines are hurting children's morals, and wants the magazines with racy covers moved out of the checkout aisles.

Jennifer Porter believes she is raising her three children the right way.
She homes schools, educating them according to her own christian values. "I'm teaching them to know right from wrong," she said. But when she and her children visit grocery stores, she can't avoid the checkout aisles. They are lined with magazine covers she considers offensive. "And they all are advertising sex, do this kind of sex, do that kind of sex, these kind of secrets will boost your sex life, have sex like you're single," she noted.
"All on the front covers. That's not something you should have to deal with at the checkout lane."

Porter wants the magazines moved up, out of the view of small children or even into a separate area. "If somebody advertises as a family store, you shouldn't put those magazines in a checkout lane where you have no choice. You have to go through the checkout lanes," she said. Ken Savage, the pastor at Cornerstone Church, says that even though sex sells products, that kind of marketing corrodes important family values. "I'm not saying you shouldn't sell those magazines," he said. "Sell them located somewhere else. Just don't make me have to explain to my children what these things mean. I don't want to explain it to them at this time."

After Porter complained to Albertson's, the company replied with this statement: "We review the covers of the magazines we carry, and if we feel they have pushed beyond an acceptable limit of contemporary values, we refuse to carry that particular issue." Albertson's has pulled magazines before when they had covers of women in revealing clothing. But they say, for now, the company has no plans to change their magazine policy.

Porter doesn't believe she can get rid of the magazines altogether. "I have to complain about this because it's just too much," she said. Albertson's says store management has the authority to remove magazines, but they say the company is severely criticized when they do by both the public and the media.