Supermarket giant Tesco has been criticised for selling a school uniform skirt that is ten centimetres shorter than school skirts from Sainsbury’s and Asda.
Parenting website Netmums said the skirt, named the Hitch and Stitch, looked like something sold in sex toy and lingerie chain Ann Summers.
Tesco attempted to defend the sale of the skirt despite having signed up to an anti-child-sexualisation campaign.
Controversial
Commenting on the news Siobhan Freegard from Netmums said: “If Tesco does not remove this from their shelves they are saying that they think it is okay for children of nine or ten to be seen in this way. It is particularly bad that this is part of a uniform range. Even the name of the skirt is suggestive”.
The skirt, which is priced at £8, is still available to buy online.
Sainsbury’s and Asda’s school uniform skirts are are over ten centimetres longer than Tesco’s controversial 29.5cm long school skirt.
Inappropriate
A spokesman for Tesco has said: “We would never sell schoolwear that we considered to be inappropriate.
“We do not think this skirt is inappropriate and neither do the parents we’ve talked to. Many of our schoolwear buyers are mums themselves and we know that parents really care about what their children wear.”
The retailer has signed up to the “Let Girls Be Girls” campaign which is run by another parenting online forum, Mumsnet.
The campaign aims to curb the premature sexualisation of children by asking retailers not to sell products which “play upon, emphasise or exploit their sexuality”.
Sexualisation
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has voiced his concern about the sexualisation of society, and particularly its effects on children.
Earlier this year stores faced an outcry over products which critics said fuelled child sexualisation.
In April Primark withdrew padded bikinis for seven-year-olds. It had faced strong criticism from The Children’s Society with the charity saying there needs to be a “change at the heart of society where adults stand up for better values”.
Later that month it emerged Tammy, Tesco and Peacocks were selling similar products.
And then in May parents blasted Sports Direct for marketing a padded bra to girls aged seven. Mum Lisa McDermott called the product “disgusting”.