I was shopping for underwear today and wondered into Target. I saw a nice range of sexy adult knickers and bras and started looking through them for my size until I realized that they were far too small. I was in the children's wear section and frankly, I was surprised. What in the world are girl children, from the age of three, doing wearing fancy bras and sexy knickers? What is the point, except to bypass their childhood and shoot them straight into adulthood without any preparation? The underwear was provocative and although pretty, it would have suited someone standing under a street lamp soliciting for business, not a three year old.
The longer it takes a child to mature into adulthood, the longer she has to develop a sense of self and an understanding of the way the world around her works. Dressing a child in these sorts of clothes is pushing the boundaries.

Thank you very much for your incisive and balanced contribution to this debate. The Australia Institute's report contained some bizarre allegations, to be sure, but Rush rightly drew attention to a palpable problem with marketing that sexualises pre-adult girls.

Are you paying attention Steve Fielding?

As long as there are weak willed parents who refuse ro set boundaries and say no for their children, the exploitation will continue. No one is holding a gun at the parents heads when it comes to buying clothes. We see children at a young age stuffing themselves with junk food and then the advertisers are blamed instead of weak willed parents who cant say no or spank the child for throwing a tantrum.

Its not only the young that are exploited but it is quite funny to see men and women in their 40's, 50's and 60's still trying to wear clothes that are no longer appropiate or simply don't fit. Has anyone ever told women that having a gut hang out of hipsters just should not be allowed. Having a pin in the belly button does not hide the fat. Vanity oh vanity, if only we were not so vain! The obseesion with the body is not freedom it is bondage.

I was hoping this would come up.

Hope to see one on abortion too.

I agree fully and whole heartedly with the Australia Institute analysis that kiddys should be kept from pedophiliac behavoiurs of adults. And they should be kept form exploitative behaviours. If not we will end up not only with the 'Swollen Generation', we will also have the 'stolen generation', those robbed of innocent behaviour and rendered null to/of exploitation.

Many ought to be aware that socialism is as devoid of caring as is capitalism. And there is nothing sacred in either camp. Suffer the little children eh.

I remember when this broke news, though i dont remember the commentators properly. But, there was one woman who was a doctorate i think who fully supported the capitalists. And that bloke who was cheif of the company in dispute. And then there was the mother pedaphile who was the one who took the photos of the child.

Now dont get me wrong ladies et al, for what i am about to say.

I was annoyed (a polite word) by what i saw. First this young boss saying it was all OK, but who had a vacant look about him. And then the two women. Now we all know what would have been said and the furore that would have erupted ifn these women were blokes. Right? So i condemn them wimmin too.

I reckon Austrlaia needs to back of accessing children for everything. There is plenty of time in our non-innocent adulthood for us to exploit. I reckon we all should damwell leave the kids to be kids and find something else to do.

There is so much...

If any one might wonder why FOCUS ON THE FAMILY is going 'gangbusters'.. where they take a close look at boundaries and look at family life from the perspective of values which are:

a) Enduring.
b) Straight from the 'Makers Handbook'

-then look no further than this article.

If we don't have an enduring and robust values framework, we are vulnerable as a society to just this kind of opportunistic boundary pushing.

The OBVIOUS question is....'once we are used to this status quo and the new breed of hot sexy kids..... what's next' ?

There are only a limited number of possibilities, but given the amoral values of base capitalism (or the amoral permissiveness of atheistic socialism and/or environmentalism) one could easily speculate.
lets take a stab....

Briefer childrens undies with little DEVILS on them.
or..
As above with some scantily clad RAPPER chicks or blokes on them.

Deliberately choosing colors which instantly conjour up 'evil/naughty' ideas.. such as blacks with reds... (satan/Occult)

Or.. childrens briefs with Tarot cards on them.....

Even suggestive images of little boys and girls... I would not put anything past the 'make_it_up_as_u_go' crowd when it comes to fast bucks.

The list is endless.

But the more important question is... what is the socio/cultural DESTINATION of all this ?

As far as I can see, it will be the total breakdown of our social/moral fabric, and the fading into historical insignificance of our culture, overtaken and superceded by others which stand for a values framework they believe in.

For me, this kind of thing is as serious as international terrorism, because this....is done by us...to ourselves.

Good article. The wider perspective is needed. I was becoming quite hungry for a balanced, thought-provoking article.

The girls are into Paris Hilton and some mothers don't mind helping them out. For some mothers, it brings back some of their lost youth. Pathetic.

But we can do something. We do know that marketers target adolescents and children as a source of sales. Another topical issue is junk food advertising. (Here there should be a chorus of "Shame, Mr Abbott shame!" for refusing to do anything about junk food advertising directed at kids.)

We shouldn't lose sight of the broader issues surfaced in this article, however at the same time we should all undertake to do something constructive to help children retain some childhood at least.

What about a more concerted effort from all of us to encourage the federal government to place a clamp on advertising directed at children? Why are we letting them get away with the fob-off by Tony Abbott?