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UK: Girls as young as seven can adopt Angelina Jolie's children as 'fashion accessories' and buy 'anti-baby' pills in online game

UK: Girls as young as seven can adopt Angelina Jolie's children as 'fashion accessories' and buy 'anti-baby' pills in online game

Write: Amitabh [2011-05-20]

Girls as young as seven are being encouraged to adopt children as fashion accessories in a controversial new web game.

My Minx also allows players to buy condoms and ‘anti-baby’ tablets for their web characters.

Parental groups have slammed the website, which has around 20,000 members, claiming it sends out the wrong message to children.

UK: Girls as young as seven can adopt Angelina Jolie's children as 'fashion accessories' and buy 'anti-baby' pills in online game

My Minx: Girls are encouraged to adopt children based on celebrities' kids

UK: Girls as young as seven can adopt Angelina Jolie's children as 'fashion accessories' and buy 'anti-baby' pills in online game

'Adoption centre': My Minx allows members to choose a baby online

Girls are able to design their character – including their breast size – they can then visit a virtual adoption agency to handpick a selection of children to make their avatar more fashionable.

Players choose from orphans such as Pax, Maddox and Zahara – named after Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children – or Mercy and David Banda – named after Madonna’s kids.

Four-year-old Zahara is said to be Ethiopian and a fan of eating guinea pigs while Maddox's favourite food is supposedly cockroaches.

UK: Girls as young as seven can adopt Angelina Jolie's children as 'fashion accessories' and buy 'anti-baby' pills in online game

'Accessories': The orphans are based on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children

There is also a Mongolian girl called Jamiyah - based on Ewan McGregor's adopted daughter, who is said to feast on rats.

Girls can buy condoms, which cost 50 'pink pounds', and 'anti-baby tablets' - at 200 'pink pounds' a packet - for their web characters.

They can also shop for saucy lingerie and revealing clothes for their characters to wear.

Andy Hibberd, spokesman for parents' rights group Parentkind, said: ‘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 that they don't need to worry about morals or ethics.

UK: Girls as young as seven can adopt Angelina Jolie's children as 'fashion accessories' and buy 'anti-baby' pills in online game

Inspiration: Madonna with adopted son David Banda and her daughter Lourdes

‘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 is very precious.’

My Minx was created by north London firm Blighty Arts - the same team behind the heavily criticised Miss Bimbo game, which encourages girls to give their virtual characters diet pills and boob jobs.

But arts director Christopher Evans has insisted that My Minx is ‘harmless, tongue-in-cheek entertainment’.

He added: ‘It is nonsense to suggest our game is a bad influence on young children.

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