Skimpy shorts for 8 year old girls slammed

Who wears short shorts?
Girls as young as 8, sometimes, and one lobby group has raised worries over whether these skimpy denim numbers should be donned by young children at all.
Short shorts, nicknamed Daisy Dukes after the blonde bombshell who popularised them in the classic TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, have been a common sight around the Bay's beaches and shopping centres in recent summers.
You can buy them pre-faded, high-waisted, ripped to ribbons, camouflaged or complete with roll up cuffs.
At SUPRE, which stocks them in myriad shapes and styles for a market of mainly aged 11 to 25, they have become a staple item, Tauranga manager Stacey Handley said.
"A lot of people cut them out of old jeans and get creative with them."
Although the store sells them year round - some girls opt to team them with tights in winter - most are snapped up when the weather warms up.
"Sales have increased a lot in the last month. As soon as the sun comes out, people are buying short shorts."
While few of the buyers were older women, there were more at the other end of the age scale.
"We get a lot of 8-year-olds in who can't get them from kids stores in some styles.
"Most of them have their mums with them and they might not like them so much, which is fair enough."
She said SUPRE staff were aware of what styles were appropriate and what weren't for young girls.
Asked how she would typically handle a young girl asking for an inappropriate style of shorts shorts, she said she would encourage them to try on other styles that fitted better.
Rodelle Payne, of Mount Maunganui store Sisters, said there were age-appropriate styles of short shorts that could be worn tastefully by young girls.
But she said it was "not cool" when 8-year-olds tried to wear styles designed for 16-year-olds.
Family First director Bob McCoskrie said while his conservative advocacy group had not broached the short shorts issue, research had shown that children encouraged to wear "sexual clothing" early in life were at risk of depression and weight and self-image issues later on.
"Children aged 7 or 8 should be dressing like 7 and 8-year-olds ... you have to ask, are they wearing these short shorts because they're comfortable, or because they're grown up and sexy? Our concern is it's the latter."
Tauranga child psychotherapist Augustina Driessen agreed it could be psychologically harmful for young girls to copy adult fashions.
"They don't have time to grow up and play like they should be playing."
She believed it was up to the the parents to say no.