By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:16 AM on 26th January 2010

A new web craze where young girls make their virtual characters adopt children as fashion accessories has outraged parents’ groups.

The controversial My Minx game also sees girls as young as seven giving their characters contraceptives and morning-after pills.

Players clothe their virtual minxes in sexy lingerie and other revealing outfits and buy ‘trophy orphans’ – named after children already adopted by celebrities.

My Minx – a new web game that allows you to dress your character in sexy lingerie and adopt trophy orphans

The adoption clinic in a virtual Style City features girls calledPax and Maddox and a boy named Zahara after Angelina Jolie’s children.

The virtual youngsters have the same nationalities as Jolie’s withMaddox, three, said to be Cambodian and a fan of eating cockroaches.

Similarly up for grabs are Vietnamese noodle-lover Pax, five, andEthiopian lad Zahara, four, whose favourite food is said to be guineapig.

The adoption centre also boasts a David Banda, four, and Mercy, five, of Malawi, clearly modelled on Madonna’s adopted children.

And there is a Mongolian girl called Jamiyan – based on actor EwanMcGregor’s Mongolian four-year-old daughter – who is said to enjoyeating rats.

In even worse taste, gamers can adopt children from earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The controversial game, by a North London firm, sees players take their minxes binge drinking and clubbing as they try to pull men

Once they have paid the adoption fees, players style their newchildren in over-the-top designer gear and can then try to sell imagerights for them to celebrity magazines.

They are challenged to outdo rival minxes by amassing ever more adoptive children to ‘make their family more fashionable’.

The controversial game, by north London firm Blighty Arts, also seesplayers take their minxes binge drinking and clubbing as they try topull men.

For minxes that succeed in one night stands, there are virtual condoms and morning after pills.

Gamers design their own saucy lingerie brands and handbag ranges as they compete to create the most stylish minx.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and their adopted children arrive at Narita airport, near Tokyo, a year ago. My Minx pokes fun at such celebrity families

They take on rival minxes in ‘style-off competitions’ to try and becrowned the ‘minx of minxes’ in the game, which is being marketed as’Barbie meets Chanel’.

There are no age restrictions on the game and when players run outof virtual cash, they top up their accounts by sending text messagescosting 1.50 each or use PayPal.

The website’s creators also made Miss Bimbo, which has over twomillion members and was attacked for encouraging young girls to givetheir characters diet pills and ‘boob jobs’.

My Minx was launched shortly before Christmas and has already attracted 20,000 members – with some as young as seven.

But parents’ groups are horrified to see the game taking off andhave accused the game’s creators of ‘exploiting children for profit’.

Andy Hibberd, spokesman for parents’ rights group Parentkind, said:‘There are more than enough pressures on children to grow up already.We don’t need any more.

‘Their parents will not have any idea that they are playing this game and the children will fail to appreciate its irony.

‘Having them getting virtual condoms or morning-after pills will not make them any less promiscuous.

‘As regards child adoption, this game encourages them to think thatthey don’t need to worry about morals or ethics. It is all just a bitof fun.

‘It claims to be a microcosm of real life but you have to question whether it actually starts creating reality.

‘It is sending out all the wrong messages and the only reason its creators have made it is to make money.

‘They are exploiting children for profit. Children’s innocence isvery precious and should be protected for as long as possible.’ 

But the game’s creator, Blighty Arts director Christopher Evans,insisted that the game was ‘harmless, tongue-in-cheek entertainment’.

Mr Evans, 30, said: ‘It is nonsense to suggest our game is a bad influence on young children.

‘We try to protect children too much from the real world for toolong in this day and age. They cannot be wrapped up in cotton wool.

‘We should let them grow up making their own decisions about the games they play.

‘The game teaches children about the world while poking fun at celebrity adoptions.

‘Every time they turn on the TV they will see the likes of Madonna adopting African children anyway.

‘The contraceptives and morning after pills are only one part of thegame and we are not encouraging young girls to take them, justreflecting real life.’

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Love how the article mentions the My Bimbo game, and the outrage for encouraging players to get ‘boob jobs’ for their characters. Pot / kettle much? In my experience young women are encouraged to plasticise their appearance not be a minority game using poorly realised cgi characters, but by endless tabloid media coverage of women who have had just such surgical enhancements – THAT’S what creates role models and ridiculous expectations. Still, always easier to point the finger than accept responsibility ourselves, eh?

- Colin Fisher, London, 27/1/2010 11:50

We get EXACTLY the society we deserve. It’s what’s known as collective responsibility. Every time we allow something like this to slip through the net we make our world and our childrens world that little bit darker.
If every person who bothered to put a comment or complaint on a newspaper website emailed their MP instead, they would be contributing to a better society. If every person who bothered to put a comment or complaint on a newspaper website emailed the ‘offender’ ( a simple search would usually find the right company), instead, they would be contributing to a better society. If every person who was angered at the exploitation of our children went to their local shops and complained about the sale of such things instead, they would be contributing to a better society. If everybody who hit the post a comment button emailed the editor of the newspaper instead, they would be contributing to a better society. Nothing will change for the better until we do!

- Jacquie Lloyd, midlands, 26/1/2010 20:03

Ok… and this is where CENSORSHIP by PARENTS comes in… we don’t buy the games we don’t want our kids to emulate. we don’t sexualise them at an early age and we don’t invite such ‘kack’ into the house via the TV either!!

No doubt this is the sort of stuff that encouraged the 13 year lad lad to rape a woman, and another to rape a lass of 10. (That and some of the ‘rap’ music I’ve heard talking of ‘bitches’ and beating people as though they’re goals to aim for. We adults have to clean up our act – and vote with our money!

Such rubbish not allowed in our house – or that of any of our family!

- fibro_fran, Leics, 26/1/2010 19:18

“NO! This is OUTRAGEOUS! I feel physically sick reading this
- Eve, Herts, 25/1/2010 21″

Do calm down and stop overeacting. This game isn’t aimed at kids. If the parents do not know why there kids are using paypal or asking for extra phone credit every 2 days then more fool them.

So take a deep breath and go for a lie down – life isn’t so bad, despite the best attempts of tabloids such as this to convince people it is

- Tony M, Where the ex pats are not, 26/1/2010 15:39

I dont understand the big hoo-ha. why are these parents blaming the game creators?

why are they not monitoring their SEVEN year old CHILDREN? why have they got mobile phones with enough credit to buy virtual cash?

as far as i can see, the creators have done nothing wrong. parents need to grow up and BE parents. if you are ‘mature’ enough to breed then you damn well should be mature enough to look after your offspring.

pull yourselves away from the TV and do your job as a parent.

- barbara, by the seaside, england, 26/1/2010 15:38

“The values of modern society are based on two things only – money and sex.
- R, CBD, Melbourne, Australia, 26/1/2010 10:05″

That is different to the past how?

- Tony M, Where the ex pats are not, 26/1/2010 15:35

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New internet game encourages children to make their characters wear sexy lingerie and buy ‘trophy’ orphans