opinion

How could any parent dress their baby in this? It's sick.

A website has been flooded with complaints for selling baby clothes with slogans such as "horny", "sexpert", "wanted: one night stand", girls' underwear with the words "daddy's little slut" across the back, and a disturbing infant bodysuit showing a line of babushka dolls with the words "I want you inside me".

Cafe Press is a United States based company, with website domains in countries including Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. It allows independent sellers to upload designs to its site, which are then printed to a range of products.

The Facebook page 'Kids Free 2 B Kids' has been inundated with comments expressing outrage at the slogans. 

"This is possibly one of the most disgusting things I have seen", wrote one woman.

"No baby should wear a 'blow-job instructor' bodysuit, this is sickening," wrote another.

WA Today quotes Justine O'Malley from the child abuse prevention organisation Protective Behaviours WA saying: "They're really inappropriate sexualised messages. Of course the infant themselves can't read it, but other children might be able to and adults can read them; so we're putting children in a sexualised space. Sex and children; those two things just don't go together."

Cafe Press has responded to the controversy with a statement saying: "At times, user-uploaded designs are unacceptable based on our content usage policy and those images may be removed. Content may appear on certain products, like baby apparel, that would not necessarily be objectionable on adult products. Cafe Press is in the process of reviewing both the user-designed images and the products brought to our attention recently. Please note, this process can take some time, but please know it is in process."

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However, more than a week after saying the items would be taken down, many baby products with sexualised messages are still for sale on the website.

It's reminiscent of the controversy created in 2009 when Cotton On released a line of t-shirts for babies and toddlers with slogans including "They shake me", "I like to get high" and "F**k the milk, where's the whiskey?" (shown above). 

Mia Freedman wrote at Mamamia at the time: "What the hell are you people thinking and how dare you try to turn children into the sickest kind of human billboards to advertise your smart arse and grossly insensitive slogans?

"What’s next Cotton On? Kids t-shirts that say `My Parents Sexually Abuse Me'?  Or what about `My Parents Bash Me'? That would be hilarious, wouldn’t it!!" 

Community outrage led Cotton On to withdraw the clothing from sale and issue an apology stating that it "respects family, social and moral values and as a result would like to announce that the issue has been taken seriously and in agreeance, willingly extends an apology to those who have been affected by the slogans".  

Do you think the clothing ranges are just harmless jokes or another disturbing step in the sexualisation of children?

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