Blog: Girls too aloud?
Blog: My six-year-old daughter has just got heavily into Girls Aloud. She mimics the dance moves of Cheryl and Co - some of which are, frankly, a bit raunchy. Of course, she doesn't realise this; she's just innocently copying her idols

Blog: My six-year-old daughter has just got heavily into Girls Aloud. She has their latest live show DVD and, up in her bedroom, she mimics the dance moves of Cheryl and Co - some of which are, frankly, a bit raunchy.
Of course, she doesn't realise this when she's pouting and preening and doing her sultry singing in the mirror - as far as she's concerned, she's just innocently copying her idols.
Fears over sexual images and children - click here
And that's the worrying thing. This example of her behaviour seems to back up the new Home Office-commissioned study on the sexualisation of children through a drip-drip effect of adult images that are beamed into in all areas of everyday life - from lads' mags to computer games and even daytime TV.
A normalisation process means the previously unthinkable becomes widely acceptable in modern society.
As a father, at the risk of turning into Mary Whitehouse in a flat cap, I do find it a bit concerning. And I have since taken steps, rightly or wrongly, to protect my daughter from overtly sexual images.
I monitor what images she looks at on the internet; I turn the telly over during raunchy adverts; I even lead my daughter through WH Smith via the magazines that don't have the amply manufactured Katie Price leering from the cover, or the lads' mag where you can virtually see the cover model's ovaries.
While I don't want to totally blinker her from the realities of the imagery that is out there, or form opinions for her, I don't want her to think that this is normal, or acceptable, behaviour for her to copy, innocently or otherwise.
I can't choose her role models for her, but until she understands why those images might be out there, and can therefore form her own view about them. What else can a dad do?
Who knows, in avoiding the lads' mags and leading her through the hobby magazine section of WH Smith, I may be accidentally going the opposite way and turning into her into a model train enthusiast or, heaven forbid, a knitting freak.
But for now I'll take the chance.
By Ben Bentley