The P word, used indiscriminately in recent weeks of Catholic priests who sexually molested minors, has scared a British retailer into withdrawing bikinis with padded bras aimed at seven-year-olds from sale.

The retailer acted within hours of a front-page article in The Sun denouncing the product as a "pedo (pedophile) bikini".

Now we know how to get rid of this stuff. Good.

Primark, a popular discount chain, is not the first retailer to draw criticism for offering padded bras for kids younger than 10. But the outcry of protest is prompting a growing number of companies to pledge support for Mumsnet's "Let Girls Be Girls" campaign.

As Mumsnet says, such items "encourages a culture in which children are viewed as sexually available". And with politicians joining the chorus of condemnation -- “completely disgraceful” said… click here to read whole article and make comments

Anyone who thought China was softening its one-child policy will have to think again after news that one local government in southern China is forcing thousands of couples to undergo sterilisation -- and, in many cases, holding their parents hostage to ensure they comply.

Nanfang Rural News -- a paper that reputedly sails close to the wind of official censorship -- reported that the government in the city of Puning has drawn up a list of nearly 10,000 people suspected of intending to have a second or third child. Around half that group has agreed to sterilisation.

But hundreds of senior citizens are being held captive to encourage the others:

The 1,377 detained people include some of those who have so far refused, but mostly consist of their parents. Witnesses said that they were being held in cramped, damp conditions, including one group of 200 which… click here to read whole article and make comments

The number of women dying in childbirth, widely believed to be stalled at around half a million worldwide, has actually fallen by one third over the past three decades, according to research published in The Lancet this week.

As recently as last May the World Health Organisation said that mothers and newborns are no more likely to survive now than 20 years ago. But others have pointed out that there is a lot of guesswork in the statistics used to estimate maternal deaths.

Now, Dr Christopher Murray of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (in Seattle) and his colleagues at the University of Queensland (Australia) estimate that such deaths dropped from 526,300 in 1980 to342,900 in 2008 -- a drop of 35 per cent. The researchers “took every bit of data they could find on deaths of women from records in 181 countries… click here to read whole article and make comments

The media has been full of protestations of anguish for the young victims of clerical sexual abusers lately. And rightly so. But think about this: a man whose online business has the sole purpose of facilitating adultery claims to have 5.5 million members. How many child victims of divorce does that involve?

Noel Biderman’s sexual entrepreneurship is almost too sickening to talk about, but the fact that his Ashley Madison “dating service for married or attached men and women” has been established in Canada and the United States and is now being launched, apparently without legal impediment, in Australia, tells us something about these societies that is very, very ugly. And maybe very, very hypocritical as well.

Biderman’s total disregard of the effect his trade might have on children, indeed, his complete cynicism on that score, is evident in the way he chose the name for his filthy… click here to read whole article and make comments

A group of American paediatricians concerned about policies that encourage teenagers to think positively about same-sex attraction has set up the website FactsAboutYouth.com and sent a letter to the superintendents of all public schools in the United States.

This initiative of the American College of Pediatricians expressly refutes a publication -- Just the Facts about Youth and Sexual Orientation -- of the American Psychological Association mailed to all schools in 2008. It also differs from the position taken by the main professional body of paediatricians, the AAP, which emphasises the “normality” of same-sex attraction.

In its letter the ACP points out that confusion about sexual identity is not uncommon in adolescence, but rigorous studies show that same-sex attractions usually disappear by the age of 25. Even children with gender identity disorder (when a child desires to be the opposite sex) will typically lose this desire by puberty if the… click here to read whole article and make comments

Here is a little update on New Zealand’s anti-smacking law. Although it has been illegal since June 2007 to smack a child for the purpose of correction, a new poll shows that people are smacking their kids anyway and three out of four want the law changed.

The poll, commissioned by Family First lobby group, surveyed 1000 people.

It found:

* Extensive support for a law change across all demographics, or four out of five people.

* Three out of four said the law was not at all likely to help reduce the rate of child abuse

* Only one third of respondents actually understood the law correctly

* Forty-five percent of mums of under 12s have smacked illegally in past 12 months

* One quarter of mothers were more likely to vote for political party that commits… click here to read whole article and make comments

A recent article in Time magazine highlights a rising number of suicides involving a parent and child in Hong Kong. These “filicide-suicides” are not a new phenomenon in East Asia, but there have been at least 15 since the start of 2008 and three in February-March -- all mother and child -- provoking alarm amongst welfare agencies and experts.

In Taiwan it is worse. As we noted recently in a post about research showing that motherhood protects women against suicide, Taiwan has high and increasing rates of suicide amongst men and women. It also has the highest filicide-suicide rate in East Asia, with 61 reported cases since 2008.

The parent’s desperation is often linked with joblessness and financial hardship as well as marriage breakdown. Cultural attitudes come into play:

Two years ago, a study co-authored… click here to read whole article and make comments

A brand new survey of what women really want concerning paid maternity leave is most revealing. Contrary to the usual line that basically all women want a paid career, with perhaps family thrown in on the side, this new Australian poll finds overwhelming support for the importance of stay-at-home mothering.

Commissioned by the Australian Family Association, the poll asked over 1000 people whether government paid parental leave plans should go to stay-at- home mothers, as well as those in the paid workplace. Some sixty-four per cent said that both groups should be equally funded.

The poll also asked whether government childcare funding arrangements should be provided equally to both groups of mums. A strong sixty-seven per cent replied that childcare rebates should go to both groups.

This survey simply confirms what Australian women have been saying about this issue for decades now. Earlier polls found quite similar… click here to read whole article and make comments

June 11th is the kick-off of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa -- the first time a global event like this will take place on the continent. Many critical eyes will be focused not only on the matches but also on the security measures and the overall organization for the 350,000 soccer fans expected.

The South African Emergency Management Services divisional chief, Sean Knoetze, told Associated Press they were prepared for everything: biological and chemical incidents, stadium collapses, aircraft crashes and flooding. “We never know what to expect,” he said. South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, addressing the Ugandan parliament in a state visit on March 25th, said the country intends to “disprove skeptics out to “de-campaign” Africa.” Leave for all military personnel will be cancelled during the one-month long tournament to forestall any civil demonstrations, and patrol the country’s borders to prevent trafficking in drugs and humans.

Like the… click here to read whole article and make comments

One would think, given the current red alert about clerical child abusers, that the safety and innocence of children was pretty well number one priority with the media. But is it?

Not necessarily. When it comes to protecting children from harmful content on the internet it seems there has to be a trade off of interests. Proposals by Australia to filter internet content more thoroughly has brought an outcry from Google, Yahoo and outfits with names like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Centre for Internet Freedom (part of the Progress and Freedom Foundation). Even the US government has signalled its concern that the “free flow of information” and “open societies” may be threatened. And the big bogey is China: this will give China an excuse to persist in censorship for political reasons, some say.

So what is Australia actually planning to do?

The plan, which… click here to read whole article and make comments