The sexualisation of children’s entertainment has reached a new low with the arrival of an online game in which kids can “hook up” and play strippers and prostitutes with avatars.

One hates increasing the notoriety of sites like My Minx, but it might be just as well for parents to be warned about this free registration, easily accessible trap for youngsters, and to be aware of the brazen defence mouthed by its author -- a Briton named Christopher Evans.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, although the site has features appealing to tweens and even younger kids -- including web links to other tween games such as Hanna Montana, Bratz and Scooby Doo -- Evans claims it is targeted at late teen users who, he told a British paper, are capable of making “their own distinction between a game and real life”.

In the next breath, however, he says the game is about “real life”:

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

''The contraceptives and morning-after pills are only one part of the game and we are not encouraging young girls to take them, just reflecting real life.''

(The more often avatars buy and use condoms and morning-after pills, the higher their IQ is rated.)

As if encouraging teens to play in the pigsty of “real world” sex wasn’t bad enough, the game also makes play of celebrity-style adoptions from third world countries: for a 7000 pound adoption fee, avatars can buy an orphan.

I suppose Evans would not have got off first base with this horrible game if the ground had not been prepared by the likes of Bratz dolls and sexualised tween magazines -- and the parents who see no harm in them. It’s the happily boiled frog syndrome again.

(Thanks to Denise Pintado for this tip.)