



By Jung Hae-myoung







Many mothers are upset over online shopping malls for children's clothing, which the mothers believe are exploiting child models as young as eight.







On these sites, models aged 8 to 10 put on heavy makeup and strike poses that resemble those on adult clothing sites ― a child in a bikini standing backward while holding up her long hair with both hands or another child in a one-piece outfit ending in a miniskirt. The models are all skinny with long legs.







On one shopping mall called Little Bunny, child models all have strong red lips.







Another shopping mall for children advertises: "The skirt that hides chubby thighs."







"These sites neglect the diversity and individual characteristics of women and children and only dictate what the girls should look like, which is not healthy," Lee Jin Song, a feminist writer, is quoted as saying.







Shopping mall staff claim the models merely reflect customer demand and that the approach is only a marketing strategy.







This is in contrast to Uniqlo, H&M kids or Zara kids, in which child models are racially diverse with different body shapes.

