Pippa Smith

A married mother of three children, now grown up. Pippa has lived in various parts of the world having emigrated with her family to New Zealand, then on return to the UK became a Service wife. Qualified as a bi-lingual secretary, she also taught French to adults and primary school children. Her interest in media standards began as a result of the BBC’s portrayal of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in the mid 1990s, and she formed FIRMA (Families Involved in Raising Media Awareness) with some friends. Subsequently she met Miranda Suit and they discovered a shared a vision to do something about the decline in media standards. They formed a new organisation, mediamarch, and held their first peaceful protest outside the Horseferry Road HQ of Channel 4 following the programme, ‘Animal Passions’. Since then they have worked to raise awareness, lobbied Parliament and held two Parliamentary Conferences: the first in November 2008 on ‘The Harmful Effects of Violent Films and Computer Games on Young People’s Behaviour, and Effective Preventive Action’; and the second in November 2010, ‘The Harm that Pornography Does: Its Effects of Adults and Children and the Need For Regulatory Reform’. Also in November 2010 they achieved charitable status and relaunched as the charity Safermedia which is run on a voluntary basis.
To find out more and view their current work and campaign, go to the Safermedia website: http://www.safermedia.org.uk