New Zealand opposes bra for six-year-olds

AUCKLAND - New Zealand has termed as “pornification of children” and “corporate paedophilia” a range of Australia-made bras for girls as young as six.

The bras - known as “bralettes” - made by Australian underwear company Bonds, are being sold in Australia. But Bonds New Zealand said the company has decided that “selling bras for girls that young was wrong”, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Critics in Australia are saying that girls as young as six years old have been pressuring their parents into buying them.

Earlier, there was a controversy over the introduction of padded bras for girls as young as eight.

Bob McCoskrie, leader of Family First, a small political party in Australia, said exposing young girls to bras at that age could lead to other disorders later in life.

“It’s effectively pornification of children; some people have labelled it corporate paedophilia,” he said.

Ian Lambie, associate professor in clinical child psychology at Auckland University, however, said there was scientific evidence that suggested girls were developing earlier than they were a century ago.

But he questioned the company’s introduction of the clothing range.

“You really wonder if it sexualises young girls, which is obviously inappropriate, and it’s not a good message that they need to wear this to feel better about themselves or to feel fashionable,” Lambie said. “It’s not a good message for society to have.”

Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg urged people to boycott the clothing brand to send the company a strong message opposing the “adultification” of children.