'We are not encouraging girls to have breast operations,' Mr Evans explained, rather disingenuously. 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. 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.'Īt 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!' She must be provided with modelling jobs, diet pills, breast augmentation - and a fabulously wealthy man who will pay for her expensive tastes. 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 is a teenage mannequin, a 'Bimbo' - complete with bunny-girl ears, pouting lips, blank expression and pneumatic breasts. The technology itself may be curse enough for many of today's families - including my own, in which battles with my eight-year-old son over how much time he spends on the computer are now an almost daily event.īut in the case of Miss Bimbo, there is an added toxic twist in the sheer, crashing vacuity of the character the nation's daughters are being encouraged to nurture. Academic research suggests that it's this setting of simple tasks that hooks in young minds, and accounts for the fact that once children are engrossed in a particular computer game, they never want to quit. The more you play, the higher you climb up a ladder of skills. 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.
Like so many virtual worlds designed to draw in the young, Miss Bimbo calls on the child's instinct to nurture. With a cursory glance at the rules of the 'game', parents of today's computer-obsessed youngsters will quickly understand its insidious appeal. Child's play? The Miss Bimbo website is causing controversy
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