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Mumsnet

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Not to be confused with Netmums.

Mumsnet
Available inEnglish
OwnerMumsnet Limited
Revenue£8.6 million
URLmumsnet.com
RegistrationOptional
Launched11 January 2000; 24 years ago (2000-01-11)[1]
Current statusOnline

Mumsnet is a London-based internet forum, created in 2000 by Justine Roberts for discussion among people with child- or teen-aged offspring.[2][3]

History and finances

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Mumsnet was created in 2000 by Justine Roberts, who came up with the idea of a website to help parents pool information and advice, following a disastrous first family holiday with her one-year-old twins. Roberts persuaded friends Carrie Longton and Steven Cassidy to help her build the site.[3]

The website grew to become one of the most influential online forums for parents; in November 2009, then–Prime Minister Gordon Brown, opposition leader David Cameron and many other leading UK government ministers took part in live webchats with Mumsnet users. In March 2010 Mumsnet's 10th birthday party was hosted by Google UK at their London headquarters. Guests included Ed Miliband and Steve Hilton, and both then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah Brown gave speeches. Gordon Brown referred to Mumsnet as a "great British institution".[4]

In May 2011, Roberts founded Gransnet,[5][6] a sister site to Mumsnet for users over 50.

Roberts, the CEO, was named in The Guardian's 2010 Power 100.[7] In February 2013, Roberts and co-founder Longton were assessed as the 7th most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[7] Roberts was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours, for services to the economy.[8]

In 2018, Mumsnet had 1.3 billion page views from 119 million unique users, and a revenue of £8.6 million.[9]

In April 2020, Mumsnet announced a premium membership option.[10]

Media

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In November 2009, several political leaders held live chats on Mumsnet in advance of the 2010 United Kingdom general election,[11][12][13] in part due to the website's primary demographic being regarded by politicians as key floating voters, with online forums seen as arenas in which their votes could be courted.[14] Then-Prime Minister, Gordon Brown,[15][16] and the leader of the opposition, David Cameron,[17][18] both appeared on the website's webchats in quick succession, an event that was highly publicised.[19] Conservative commentator Toby Young, in arguing that Mumsnet users constituted a minor and insignificant demographic, commented that the website's users were "Guardian-reading, laptop-wielding harpies", and that the website was "peopled exclusively by university-educated, upper-middle-class women who are only "swing voters" in the sense that they swing between voting Labour, Lib Dem and Green".[20]

The 2010 election was hailed by some as "The Mumsnet Election"[21] and the site has played an increasingly prominent role in UK general elections since.

Prior to the 2024 general election, the Mumsnet Manifesto was published,[22] outlining user asks for the next government and began publishing frequent analysis of conversation and sentiment on site using proprietary data analytics tool MumsGPT.[23]

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As well as selling traditional advertising spaces on the website, Mumsnet also hosts sponsored discussion threads that act as product placements. These sponsored threads take the form of sponsored Q&A threads relevant to the products being marketed, or of "product tests", where site users are offered free samples in exchange for feedback.

In 2010, the Advertising Standards Authority extended its Code of Advertising Practice to include a requirement that paid-for promotional content on social media should be clearly identifiable as an advertisement.[24] In response to this, Mumsnet began to mark product placement discussion threads as "sponsored threads"; during the website's first 10 years, no systematic distinction existed for users to discern between paid-for discussions and user-generated discussions.

Webchats and Q+As

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The site has hosted webchats with celebrities and politicians. Then Prime Minister David Cameron was challenged over the provision of free nappies for disabled children,[citation needed][when?] and in 2011, UKIP leader Nigel Farage told Mumsnet users that UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom was "100% right" in stating that "no self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age."[25] In 2019, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have both faced questions about the Labour Party's Brexit policy and inter-party issues of anti-semitism.[26]

Jamie Oliver, Dawn French, Gok Wan and Clare Balding have all also taken part in Mumsnet webchats.[27][28] Hillary Clinton also did a video Q&A in 2014.[29]

In 2022, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson took part in a sit down interview with founder Justine Roberts, who posed questions submitted by Mumsnet users.[30] The interview garnered widespread media coverage,[31][32][33] driven in part by the first question: "Why should we believe anything you say when it has been proven that you're a habitual liar?".

Rishi Sunak,[34] Keir Starmer[35] and Rachel Reeves[36] have all taken part in similar Q+As with Roberts.

Mumsnet books

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Mumsnet has published several parenting books, based largely on the advice posted by the site's users since its launch in June 2000. These are Pregnancy: The Mumsnet Guide (2009), Toddlers: The Mumsnet Guide (2009)[37] and Babies: The Mumsnet Guide (2010). The website's latest parenting guide, The Mumsnet Rules, was published in 2011.

Other publications include a cookbook titled Top Bananas!: The Best Ever Family Recipes from Mumsnet (2014), The Book of Bedtime Stories (2013)[38] and How to Blitz Nits and Other Nasties (2017).[39]

Security

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In April 2014, Mumsnet had user accounts hijacked, and its CEO was impersonated as part of the Heartbleed exploit.[40] The site later published an explanation of the incident saying it was due to Heartbleed and the vulnerability was fixed..[41]

Lawsuit

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In April 2006, lawyers acting for "childcare guru" and former maternity nurse Gina Ford contacted Mumsnet in response to bulletin discussions of Ford's parenting methods, in which users had advocated for personal attacks to be made on Ford and her family. Ford's lawyers claimed that these threads constituted libel, and requested immediate removal of the posts in question. After 12 months of discussion, Mumsnet settled the dispute by apologising publicly to Ford and making a contribution to her legal costs.[42]

In November 2010, Mumsnet co-founder Justine Roberts wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron, urging reform of the draft Defamation Bill to address the rise of online publication.[43][44]

Campaigns

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Mumsnet has initiated several national campaigns, and has publicly supported a number of causes related to parenting. Both the 'Let Toys Be Toys' and 'Let Books Be Books' campaigns had their roots in discussions held on Mumsnet.[45][46]

In response to forum users' experience with care and support in the National Health Service for miscarried pregnancies, Mumsnet launched its 'Campaign for Better Miscarriage Care';[47] the campaign proposed a series of recommendations for improving how parents affected by miscarriage were treated within the NHS, detailed in the Mumsnet Miscarriage Code of Care,[48] which was drawn up in consultation with its users.

In January 2010, the site launched its 'Let Girls Be Girls' campaign. The campaign challenged retailers to ensure that they did not contribute to the premature sexualisation of children through their products and marketing.[49] In December 2010, Let Girls Be Girls was extended, calling for an end to the display of 'Lads' Mags' in the view of children in supermarkets and stores. The campaign received the support of the main UK magazine retailers, with the exception of WHSmith.[50]

In January 2011, Riven Vincent, a regular Mumsnet user with a severely disabled child, received widespread media attention after posting on the site about her despair in the face of local budget cuts.[51][52][53] In response to Vincent's plight, Mumsnet launched its 'Respite Care' campaign, which called on local authorities to provide adequate short breaks for families with disabled children.[54]

In June 2013, the site launched a campaign to end sales representatives on maternity wards,[55] following numerous complaints of bad practice and a user survey in which 82% of respondents found it unacceptable for commercial companies to access new mothers on hospital wards. The campaign called on members to write to their local NHS Trusts and MPs, as well as to share their stories of run-ins with sales reps. In response, a number of NHS Trusts across the UK cancelled or revised their contracts with commercial companies, with over 75 MPs signing an Early Day Motion calling for a ban on sales reps in wards.[56]

In August 2013, the site launched the awareness-raising campaign 'This Is My Child',[57] which aimed to support parents of children with additional needs in raising awareness of how the general public could help make the lives of those caring for children with additional needs easier. The site produced a myth-busting guide to additional needs for the public, supporting material produced by its users and partner organisations (Mencap, Contact a Family and Every Disabled Child Matters), and hosted a series of blogs and webchats on parenting a child with additional needs.

In May 2017, the site launched a new campaign called 'Better Postnatal Care: Aftercare, not Afterthought',[58] which aimed to address major failings in the postnatal care system found in their 2017 survey.[59]

Criticism

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The forum has been portrayed in the media as being populated by pushy and anxious mothers, including on TV comedy shows such as Outnumbered[citation needed] and Bad Education.[60]

In 2018, Catriona Jones of the University of Hull alleged that websites such as Mumsnet, which focused on graphic and negative accounts of childbirth, had led to a rise in tokophobia (fear of childbirth) in Britain.[61]

Fathers4Justice

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In March 2012, Fathers4Justice launched a campaign highlighting Mumsnet's alleged agenda of misandry. The campaign included a naked protest at Marks and Spencer, one of Mumsnet's advertisers, with the protestors stating it was an attempt to draw attention to the "naked truth" that Mumsnet promoted gender hatred. Fathers4Justice activist Matt O'Connor stated that "When you look at the language being used in some of these forums, you can see how unacceptable it would be if it was aimed towards other races or sexualities, but it seems to be widely accepted against men."[62]

Transgender issues

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The site has been criticized on the grounds it hosts transphobic content.[63] In 2018, Mumsnet introduced new rules regarding discussion of transgender issues after controversy surrounding allegations of allowing transphobic discussion, a move which was seen as a broadly positive change by LGBT rights group HERO, but faced criticism for restricting use of the terms 'cisgender' and 'TERF'.[64] Eve Livingston, writing for Vice, described the forum as a "toxic hotbed of transphobia".[65] Edie Miller, writing for The Outline in 2018, stated that "Mumsnet is to British transphobia more like what 4chan is to American fascism. The tendencies were already there, but a messageboard to amplify them and recruit people to the cause never hurts."[66] Beginning in the late 2010s, transgender activists began to refer to Mumsnet by the sarcastic appellation "Prosecco Stormfront", in reference to the white supremacist website Stormfront.

In October 2019, Upfield, the makers of Flora margarine, withdrew from a "Mumsnet rated" promotional agreement after campaigners drew attention to alleged transphobic content on the site.[67]

Endorsements

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In 2020 and 2021, two studies by academics at UCL highlighted the importance of the site for parents of children with mental health needs, as well as the high quality of the advice and support that these parents receive from other users.[68][69]

References

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  1. ^ "MumsNet.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Mumsnet Limited - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b "When Mumsnet Speaks Politicians Listen". BBC News. 20 January 2011.
  4. ^ "Power of Mumsnet grows as Gordon Brown hails it as a 'great British institution'". The Daily Telegraph. 12 April 2011. Archived from the original on 13 June 2010.
  5. ^ "Mumsnet goes grey as it launches Gransnet". 6 May 2011.
  6. ^ "Wake up to a new dawn of Grey Power'". The Daily Telegraph. 5 May 2011.
  7. ^ a b "BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour - The Power List 2013". BBC.
  8. ^ "Justine Roberts CBE | Women in the Humanities". wih.web.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  9. ^ Mumsnet Annual Accounts 2018
  10. ^ "Mumsnet Premium membership - please support us if you can | Mumsnet".
  11. ^ "Politicians woo 'Mumsnet' generation". BBC News. 18 February 2010.
  12. ^ "Parties set sights on mums in the Mumsnet election". The Times. 3 April 2010. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010.
  13. ^ "Mumsnet set to wield real clout in the election campaign". The Scotsman. 9 March 2010.
  14. ^ Pidd, Helen (18 November 2009). "Queen's Speech gets the Mumsnet treatment: Mumsnetters are being described as the next election's swing voters. So what did they make of the Queen's Speech?". The Observer.
  15. ^ "Brown takes break in biscuit quiz". BBC News. 17 October 2009.
  16. ^ "Prime Minister is scraping the barrel with biscuit silence, claim mothers". The Times. 17 October 2009.[dead link]
  17. ^ "David Cameron answers questions on Mumsnet – live". The Guardian. 19 November 2009.
  18. ^ "David Cameron blames Mumsnet webchat delays on laptop". BBC News. 19 November 2009.
  19. ^ Lewis, Jemima (12 May 2009). "Mumsnet knows no mercy – and not just for Ed Miliband". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 December 2009.
  20. ^ Young, Toby (17 March 2011). "Mumsnet isn't representative of the 'squeezed middle'. It's just a bunch of Guardian-reading, laptop-wielding harpies". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011.
  21. ^ Davies, Caroline (9 February 2010). "The Mumsnet election - parties use parenting website as battlefield". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  22. ^ "GE24: The Mumsnet Manifesto". Mumsnet. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  23. ^ "AIBU? Mumsnet can sway the election". Yahoo Finance. 12 June 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  24. ^ "Recognising ads: Social media and influencer marketing".
  25. ^ "UKIP leader Nigel Farage undergoes Mumsnet grilling". BBC News. 24 February 2011.
  26. ^ "Webchat with John McDonnell MP, Shadow Chancellor, Tuesday 18 September at 11am |". www.mumsnet.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  27. ^ "Webchats | Mumsnet". www.mumsnet.com.
  28. ^ "Webchat with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, Tuesday 30 May at midday |". www.mumsnet.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  29. ^ "Hillary Clinton - yes, Hillary Clinton - answers MNers' questions: come and watch! |". www.mumsnet.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  30. ^ "Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts puts users' questions to Prime Minister Boris Johnson". Mumsnet. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  31. ^ Pochin, Courtney (1 June 2022). "Boris Johnson struggles to name favourite kid's book despite 'lots of parenting'". The Mirror. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  32. ^ Slawson, Nicola; Thomas, Tobi; Slawson (now), Nicola; Thomas (earlier), Tobi (1 June 2022). "Boris Johnson denies being 'habitual liar' as Tory MP says Sue Gray report 'a slap in the face' – as it happened". the Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  33. ^ "PM denies he is 'habitual liar' in Mumsnet interview – follow live". The Independent. 3 June 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  34. ^ "Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts puts users' questions to Chancellor Rishi Sunak". Mumsnet. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  35. ^ "Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts puts users' questions to Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson". Mumsnet. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  36. ^ "Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts puts users' questions to Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves". Mumsnet. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  37. ^ Toddlers: The Mumsnet Guide: A Million Mums' Trade Secrets: Amazon.co.uk: Mumsnet and the Mumsnet Mums Morningpaper, Carrie Longton, Justine Roberts: 9780747595885: Books. ASIN 0747595887.
  38. ^ "The Mumsnet Book of Bedtime Stories". www.mumsnet.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  39. ^ "How to Blitz Nits and Other Nasties". www.mumsnet.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  40. ^ Kelion, Leo (14 April 2014). "Heartbleed hacks hit Mumsnet and Canada's tax agency". BBC News. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  41. ^ "Mumsnet and Heartbleed as it happened". Mumsnet. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  42. ^ "Gina Ford accepts five-figure sum over libel claim on Mumsnet site". The Times. 10 May 2007. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009.
  43. ^ "Mumsnet founders demand libel law reform". The Daily Telegraph. 19 November 2010.
  44. ^ Open letter to David Cameron Mumsnet
  45. ^ Cochrane, Kira (22 April 2014). "The fightback against gendered toys". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  46. ^ Masters, Tim (17 March 2014). "Campaign over gender-specific books gains support". BBC News. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  47. ^ [1] Mumsnet
  48. ^ [2] Mumsnet
  49. ^ Let Girls Be Girls Mumsnet
  50. ^ Lads' mags campaign Mumsnet
  51. ^ "David Cameron has let parents of disabled kids down". BBC News. 2 March 2011.
  52. ^ "When Mumsnet speaks, politicians listen". BBC News. 20 January 2011.
  53. ^ "Riven Vincent's despair over social care cuts signals depth of misery ahead". The Guardian. 23 January 2011.
  54. ^ Respite Campaign Mumsnet
  55. ^ Mumsnet: Bounty campaign homepage http://www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/bounty-reps-campaign-index
  56. ^ EDM 319 – sales reps on marketing wards. 79 signatures (11 September 2013) http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/319
  57. ^ Mumsnet: This Is My Child campaign homepage http://www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/this-is-my-child
  58. ^ "The Mumsnet Campaign for Better Postnatal Care". www.mumsnet.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  59. ^ "Our survey: what women told us about care on postnatal wards". www.mumsnet.com. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  60. ^ Bad Education, Series 1 Episode 2, BBC
  61. ^ Whipple, Tom (13 September 2018). "Mumsnet is driving fear of childbirth, expert warns". The Times. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  62. ^ "Fathers 4 Justice Stage Naked Mumsnet Protest in Marks & Spencer Oxford Street". International Business Times UK. 19 March 2012.
  63. ^ Woodhead, Hannah (30 April 2018). "Has Mumsnet become a hub of online transphobia?". Huck Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  64. ^ Ntim, Zac (13 June 2018). "Mumsnet brings in tougher forum rules after transgender row". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  65. ^ Livingston, Eve (6 December 2018). "How an Online Forum for Moms Became a Toxic Hotbed of Transphobia". Broadly. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  66. ^ Miller, Edie (5 November 2018). "Why Is British Media So Transphobic?". The Outline. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  67. ^ Lothian-MacLean, Moya. "Mumsnet users declare Flora margarine boycott after brand cuts ties over claims of transphobia". The Independent. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  68. ^ Mertan, Elif; Croucher, Lauren; Shafran, Roz; Bennett, Sophie D. (1 March 2021). "An investigation of the information provided to the parents of young people with mental health needs on an internet forum". Internet Interventions. 23: 100353. doi:10.1016/j.invent.2020.100353. ISSN 2214-7829. PMC 7749433. PMID 33365258.
  69. ^ Croucher, Lauren; Mertan, Elif; Shafran, Roz; Bennett, Sophie D. (September 2020). "The Use of Mumsnet by Parents of Young People With Mental Health Needs: Qualitative Investigation". JMIR Mental Health. 7 (9): e18271. doi:10.2196/18271. PMC 7499161. PMID 32880583.

Further reading

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