The Miss Bimbo website is causing a controversy. The website was first launched in France and attracts online players as young as 9 years old. The concept of the game is to makeover your virtual online mannequin or "bimbo". A player uses bimbo dollars to purchase plastic surgery,breast implants and diet pills to make their bimbo into the perfect size zero. Once the bimbo has reached her goals then the bimbo can achieve fame and become according to the game creator,"the most famous bimbo in the world."
Miss Bimbo is an online game that allows girls ages 9 to 16 to compete to become top "bimbo." We're not joking. Members register for free on the site and are given a simulated "bimbo" to care for. The London Times reports:
Players keep a constant watch on the weight, wardrobe, wealth and happiness of their character to create “the coolest, richest and most famous bimbo in the world”. Competing against other children they earn “bimbo dollars” to buy plastic surgery, diet pills, facelifts, lingerie and fashionable nightclub outfits.
So in case there was any doubt, Paris Hilton & Co. have in fact infiltrated the under-12 age bracket, proving that putting them on the covers of teen magazines was probably a bad idea. Shocking, we know. Founded by Nicholas Jacquart, Miss Bimbo began in France where it's racked up 1.2 million players. Jacquart recently moved to London and established a company that pimps the site in the U.K., where he's attracted 200,000 members, upsetting people left and right. “This is as lethal as pro-anorexia Websites. A lot of children will get caught up with the extremely damaging and appalling messages,” said a doctor who treats girls ages 8 to 18 with eating disorders. source
One of the UK creators admitted the modern day inspiration for the bimbo characters are famous celebs like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears who they define as the "typical blonde bimbo stereotype". Click here to watch BBC coverage of the controversial online game.
Miss Bimbo is an online game designed for girls as young as nine, where players are invited to meet the demands of a voracious, virtual teenager whose needs include binge eating and fasting - and plastic surgery. Since its UK launch a month ago, the website has attracted more than 200,000 visitors.
With a cursory glance at the rules of the "game", parents of today's computer-obsessed youngsters will quickly understand its insidious appeal.
Like so many virtual worlds designed to draw in the young, Miss Bimbo calls on the child's instinct to nurture.The girl who chooses to play on this website is invited to adopt a character and provide for her care by performing online tasks to earn "virtual" money to spend on her charge. The more you play, the higher you climb up a ladder of skills.
She is a teenage mannequin, a "Bimbo" - complete with bunny-girl ears, pouting lips, blank expression and pneumatic breasts.
In stark contrast to the fluffy "virtual pets" which became a fad on the internet a few years ago, the Bimbo's needs are not for food, shelter and exercise.
She must be provided with modelling jobs, diet pills, breast augmentation - and a fabulously wealthy man who will pay for her expensive tastes.
So, for example, when a player reaches skill level seven, she is advised: "After you broke up with your boyfriend, you went on an eating binge! Now it's time to diet."
At level nine, she should "have a nip and tuck operation for a brand new face"; at level 11, secure a breast operation because "big is best"; and on level 17, "meet a billionaire on vacation, catch his eye and his love!"
The website's creators - two young men named Chris Evans and Nicholas Jacquart - have spent the past week touring the television studios defending the game as a bit of harmless fun.
"We are not encouraging girls to have breast operations," Mr Evans explained, rather disingenuously. "It is just part of the game."
According to Mr Jacquart, the game is itself a joke: "It simply mirrors real life in a tongue-in-cheek way."
Neither denied that Miss Bimbo was designed for children as young as nine; instead they insisted that it is not a bad influence on young minds.
And yet child experts, doctors and eating disorder specialists have been queuing up to point out that whether or not the Bimbo game is intended to be ironic, irony is lost on little girls, who are much more likely to absorb the instructions as valid advice.
At nine, a child's over-riding desire is to fit in with the herd, and this game sends out a powerful message that to be size zero, famous and rich is the ultimate goal, whatever must be sacrificed in the quest. source
