Miss Bimbo!

March 25th, 2008

As a parent I am all to aware of the problem parents have in helping their children to be happy with who they are and how they look. The perfect image portrayed in magazines, newspapers and online of the Celebrity often makes children feel very insecure about themselves. I was shocked to read over the weekend that a new ‘virtual fashion game’ had been launched targeting girls between the ages of 9 and 16 called Miss Bimbo. The aim of the website is for girls to create a Bimbo that is ‘the coolest, richest and most famous bimbo in the world’.

Players can choose where to live, what job to do, shop for the latest fashions, become a socialite, date a famous hottie and even resort to plastic surgery and diet pills. It is free to register but apparently you buy ‘dollars’ to spend on your character by texting at £1.50 a text.

It amazes me that such a website can be launched. It clearly plays on the desire of young girls to be famous and encourages them to take diet pills and have plastic surgery in order to be the best. As adults we can differentiate between what’s online and the real world but children can’t do this so easily. Dee Dawson, the medical director of Rhodes Farm Clinic, treats girls from the tender age of 8 who are suffering from eating disorders. He was commented in The Times Online as saying “This is as lethal as pro-anorexia websites. A lot of children will get caught up with the extremely damaging and appalling messages.”

Mr Dawson isn’t the only one to be outraged. Many of the national newspapers has picked up on this new website and I am sure that there will be lots of debates on this over the next couple of weeks but in the meantime, this is definitely one of those websites that I will be blocking on my home PC. Will you?

Entry Filed under: advice, games, fashion, children