A new website that encourages players to take control of a virtual ‘bimbo’ has drawn criticism from parents’ groups.
The Miss Bimbo game re-enforces negative stereotypes of women and sends the wrong message to young children, the target audience of the game, according to critics.
It appears to place value on appearance, social status, plastic surgery and advocates crash dieting. The creators of the game argue that it is "harmless".
The storm coincides with the release of a report from an influential think-tank which says that children in the UK are being "raised online".
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has found that many children spend more than 20 hours a week online, more than three times as much as official estimates.
Though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the IPPR argues, more needs to be done about making sure that the internet is a safe place for children.
Kay Withers, IPPR research fellow and report author, said: "The internet offers great benefits and opportunities for young people. But with kids spending an ever increasing amount of time online, parents need to be reassured about what they are looking at."
The report from the IPPR recommends that industry watchdog Ofcom should produce annual reports on the effectiveness of initiatives aimed at tackling harmful online content.
Another recommendation is that social-networking websites such as Facebook and Bebo should develop cross-industry guidelines setting out what is expected of members and what members can expect in return.
"Government needs to improve media-literacy programmes for kids and to make sure parents are aware of how they can support young people’s positive online experiences. But more importantly internet companies need to take more responsibility for the content on their sites and promote acceptable behaviour," Withers said.
Separate research from Finnish security firm F-Secure has found that UK parents are more confident of their children’s online safety than parents from other European nations.

webuser.co.uk