London's Daily Mail describes a game where young players pay to adopt third world orphans, Brangelina-style, the dress them in "over the top designer gear so they can sell the image rights" to photo magazines. The young minxes go binge drinking and clubbing, where they try to pick up players. If the minxes are successful in hooking up for a one-night stand, they can administer the morning after-pill.
The mascot, as it were, of the site is a scantily clad blond with huge cleavage and tattoos. We're not talking American Girl dolls here.
My Minx has enraged parents around the world. One British parents group says there are enough pressures on kids to grow up to soon as it is, let alone adding another one. Some defenders of the site call think of it as a satire on celebrity culture.
What ever it is, it amounts to Grand Theft Auto for pre-pubescent girls.
Put aside for the moment that parents are responsible for monitoring their preteens' online activity. I'll stipulate to that. But the fact that such a game as this even exists shows both the dangers of the Internet for young kids and how narcissistic and obtuse the entertainment industry has become. If it is a satire, it's of the ham-handed variety. I think instead it's another example of a self-absorbed entertainment industry that produces products just because they can, without any regard to the consequences. In this case you have a self absorbed industry combined with a bunch of Internet dweebs--a deadline combination.
The problems with cultural phenomena like My Minx is that it's all downhill from here. In fact, the last online game developed by the produces of My Minx was Miss Bimbo, which encouraged girls as young as 9 to get in touch with their "inner bimbo." I wait breathlessly for their next release.
We should be encouraging healthy, self-respecting behavior in our young girls, not making them pawns in some perverse effort by online propeller heads to see how over-the-top they can go with modern culture.
Just thought you might like to know.
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