Words: Amanda O’Hara

With the government’s plans to crackdown on the commercialisation and inappropriate sexualisation of chidren, I decided to look around the internet and see what products were out there on the market for kids.

In the past the PM has attacked BHS for its “harmful and creepy” Little Miss range of padded bras and sexy knickers for under-10′s and has more recently targeted Primark for selling £4 padded bras for girls aged 9.

This time last year I wrote a piece titled ‘Some of the best worst kids Christmas gifts ever’ which featured a breast feeding doll, a pole dancing doll and a nipple tassle toddler t-shirt.

So looking at the slightly less weird, I decided to search for children’s clothes. I thought I would be highlighting inappropriate items from Madonna and 14 yr old Lourdes’ MG Range, only I found a few items a little more peculiar.

Question:

If you saw this T-shirt in a window, would you think it was designed for an adult or a child?

Why of course it is designed for an Adult.

So why does Redbubble’s website give you the option to order these artists designs on popper vests for babies, and T-shirts for children 2-12 yrs? Lets hope it’s just a flaw in the sites coding?

Mini Barratts are selling Metallic heels in junior sizes starting at a size 1 and whilst I think they are fairly high for young children, I wanted to see if I could find anything higher.  That is when I came across these boots and tights on a site called Skimpy Outfits. Although it is a US site, these products (and the same model) are knocking around a few UK sites too.

High heel leather calf boots for kids….
Fishnet stockings?
Is that really the look for a child?

Pictured left – Beautiful tights, but is that an appropriate child like pose for selling tights?

And where is her skirt?

Onto my next search…

I googled ‘children’s underwear’ and found this (check out the Children’s classic thong)

Now presuming that last one was just a mistake… lets move onto something a little more normal.

Barbie…

Whether you love her or hate her, Barbie has been around for a long time and will remain here for many more years to come. In the past, she has been under scrutiny for the image she portrays. It has been estimated that in real life she would be around 5ft 6″ and weigh around 8 stone! This sexy tall super skinny influential model for young children, who also caused outrage with her Black Canary Barbie collectors doll, offers her very own make-up starter kit compete with lip gloss, glitter nail polish and body glitter!

Harmless enough?

Whilst we are on the subject of Barbie, what do you think of Barbie ‘Video Girl’?
In a recent article in the Daily Mail, it was stated that a ‘cyber crime alert’ from the FBI has said the doll, which went on sale in July and has a recording device in it’s necklace which can be transferred onto a computer, could be used to record footage used for distribution by paedophiles.

So we’ve discovered pole dancing and breast feeding dolls, bizarre T-shirts for kids, high heels, fishnets, boots, make-up, body glitter and plastic role models which leaves me with one more subject to touch on.

The real life role models.

These guys have a big responsibility once they choose to become huge role models to our very young girls.

So what happens when the likes of Miley Cyrus, who your daughter idolises, goes from kiddie pop to teen trash?

I just hope my daughter sticks with practicing the Ice Cream Freeze and not whatever Miley was doing in her concert earlier this year!

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