Group: Site That Sells Kids' Swimsuits Is Really Child Porn

[The Straight Story]

Group: Site That Sells Kids' Swimsuits Is Really Child Porn

eb Site Operator Says Outfits Aren't Meant To Be Sexy

UPDATED: 10:15 am EDT June 10, 2005

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado-based Web site that sells children's swimwear is drawing outrage from a national children's advocacy group, Denver television station KMGH reported.

The site advertises children's bathing suits and features pictures of young boys and girls wearing skimpy clothing, including thongs.

An Ohio group called FindMissingKids.com says the bikini-style swimming suits for kids are inappropriate and the pictures on the Web site border on pornographic. The group argues that the site is getting away with child porn and should be shut down because it could be a haven for child predators.

"So the problem you have is that they know where they can push the limit and they push it just far enough so that they don't get arrested. But from a moral standpoint, they don't care," said Bret Vinocour, with FindMissingKids.com.

http://www.local6.com/family/4593135/detail.html

[BattyDem]

1. Why would any parent buy a thong bathing suit for their child?

:shrug:

[Warpy]

9. To be "hip" and "happening" and "trendy," of course

Nevr mind that any child over the age of three is going to be mortified in one of those things.

I'd say any site that puts out pics of kids in those things is crossing a line. Put them on mannequins, just leave the kids out of it.

There will always be stupid people who like bad ideas, especially when those bad ideas are marketed as fashion. I don't think putting thongs on a mannequin instead of a real child will affect their sales much.

[benburch]

2. Hard to draw the line, though.

And if you draw it too far on one side, you criminalize people's pictures of their own kids at the beach, and who wants that???

[The Straight Story]

4. understand that

I am not sure where you draw it or who should do the drawing. I have my own thoughts on it all really. And to me there are differences between family photos and public ones.

[benburch]

5. How about the famous Coppertone billboard?

http://www.mutoworld.com.nyud.net:8090/_uimages/JBCoppertone.jpg

In the current climate, some would call that pornographic, too. And I cannot see it as anything but cute/funny. Maybe because it has been around all my life? I dunno.

[SoCalDem]

3. ANYONE who posts their own kids pics online, has no idea

who is out there lusting after their kids.. They may think they are posting them so Granny & Gramps can click and see the kids, but so can all kinds of people..

I once emailed a person to let them know that they were inviting trouble.. they had their kids pics online, AND had a MAP to their house for the barbeque they were hosting..I noticed later that they had removed the personal info from their website.

Thongs for kids is just plain creepy though

[wtmusic]

6. Yes

I was going to put up a website for my little league team, but was advised against it for that very reason.

Kind of sad, really.

[wtmusic]

7. Kinda like those who put makeup on very young girls

the "sexy" kind...very weird

[HockeyMom]

8. Totally Impractical too

I tried buying plain old two piece suits, with the ruffles, when my girls were toddlers. I spend more time pulling the bottoms up cause ever time they went into the water, the bottoms will come down. They don't have the HIPS at 2 years old to keep them up. Put them in one piece suits and let them enjoy themselves in the water.

[ClarkUSA]

10. Too many people see sex in everything

If I wanted to have my kids run naked around the house and jump into the pool that way and take photos, then it's my business. This group should focus more on Bush having dinner with a known pornographer and porn-star next week at a GOP fundraiser.

Gosh, what did people do before clothing? If a thong-wearing mom from Miami, CA or Hawaii had a daughter who wanted to look just like Mommy, what's the big deal?

[BrainRants]

11. Check out the straw man poll on the page of the story!

Would you ever let your child wear thong bikinis?

-Yes, if they really wanted to and it looked cute.

-No way.

Gets my vote for the dumbest poll question I've seen today!

[MadHound]

12. Oh the hysteria

To me it looks like the folks at FindMissingKids.com are going a little bit overboard on the hysteria meter. I went and checked out the site, and there are no thongs, and nothing skimpier than a two piece child's swim suit, nothing which we haven't all seen at the pool a million times before. In fact it appears that the guy is a member of Internet Content Ratings Association, a non-profit devoted to making the internet safer for kids. It also seems that the guy offers up rewards to people who find his pictures in places other than his site. The only thing that I found possibly objectionable is one child model whose gender is rather indeterminent due to long blond hair. This model appears topless, but whether the child is male or female is unclear. If the model is female, then there is a problem. If it is a long haired male, then I don't have a problem.

Other than that, I think that this is hysteria for hysteria's sake. But hey, go check it out for yourself<http://www.underhillgarb.com/index.html>

[applegrove]

13. Thongs! Shouldn't those be illegal? Yes the internet is a new

medium and you have to consider that you do not have access to who goes to the sites.

I would think that it would be obvious to any swimsuit site - after consideration - that putting kids up is not the way to go.

Not something you automatically assume unless you think like a predator. But true. When you go public with anything - you do have to consider all that.