An online game in which players can make their character take diet pills and
have plastic surgery has concerned anorexia groups and premium phone rate
regulator Phonepay Plus.
Miss
Bimbo gives players a virtual character and allows them to compete to "
become the most famous, beautiful, and sought after bimbo across the globe".
Players can use virtual money to buy clothes, plastic surgery or diet pills
to maintain the character's “svelte” 127Ib, 5ft 6in figure. Extra virtual money
can be purchased by sending a text message that costs £1.50.
The
Rhodes
Farm Clinic, which treats eating disorders, accused Miss Bimbo of being as
“lethal as pro-anorexia websites”.
The premium rate regulator Phonepay Plus has confirmed that it is
investigating claims that the site may breach UK law.
When contacted by Computeractive, a representative for Miss Bimbo told us
there “was a lot of over-the-top press”.
He said the site had been built around the US Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act
(COPPA),
which asks for a parent's permission if a child under the age of 13 posts
personal information on a site.
“There is no minimum age for a child to use this site but we used this Act as
a guideline as we couldn't find anything similar in the UK.”
"We will be getting rid of the diet pills from the site but we will be
keeping the breasts as the plastic surgery option has been popular,” he said.
Computeractive visited the site and registered twice: once as an adult and
once pretending to be nine years old. When posing as a nine-year-old the site
asked for a parent's email address to get permission.
However, once our "parent" had approved, both accounts were able to play the
game identically.
In a statement, Phonepay Plus said: "Our code of practice has specific
requirements for services targeted at children or likely to be particularly
attractive to children.
"In addition to issues around cost, our rules make it clear that services
should not exploit or provide content that parents are likely to think
unacceptable.
"We are looking into claims that the Miss Bimbo service might contravene
these requirements."
Parents or children who have concerns about Miss Bimbo’s premium rate
services are being
advised
to contact the regulator.
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