Former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm says the sexualisation of children has gone too far, and encouraged stars like Rihanna to take more responsibility for their performances.
Miss Chisholm’s comments come amidst increasing concern about child sexualisation, and follow a Government review into the problem.
Commenting on the issue she said: “People have to take some responsibility because we’ve got to a point where over-sexualisation of young children has gone too far.
Sexual
“I think music is a big part of that. Women in music, very successful women, are extremely sexual and they have young fans. It is inappropriate.
“Rihanna has responsibility and although culture’s always changing, it’s changed too much. It needs to be dealt with. It’s reached saturation point, we owe it to our kids to protect them. Rihanna’s free to do as she pleases, of course, but I think her take on the criticism she’s had is interesting.”
Rihanna is a Barbados-born pop star who recently came under fire for a music video in which she was depicted murdering a rapist. She dismissed the criticism insisting that she was a ‘rockstar not a parent’.
Raunchy
But Miss Chisholm, who gave birth to a baby girl early in 2009, believes that Rihanna might rethink her performances if she became a mother.
She described Rihanna as talented “but she’s not a mum. Maybe if she becomes one she’ll feel different. I hope so anyway”.
However Miss Chisholm was a member of the Spice Girls, who were themselves accused of being too sexual.
Inappropriate
But Miss Chisholm added: “Yes, we wore crop tops, I mean look how much has changed. But we always sat down as a group, be it in photoshoots, videos, interviews, and if somebody felt something was inappropriate for our young fans, we did something about it.
“And I think that’s something young people in the music industry today, like Rihanna, should do now.”
Earlier this year hit song writer Mike Stock warned that pop music has taken “a slow but unmistakable descent into pornography”.
Decency
Mr Stock put some of the blame on music videos by stars such as Rihanna and Christina Aguilera.
He said: “Pop music in this country is almost completely dominated by American acts who have taken sexualised imagery, dance moves and lyrical content way beyond the limits of decency.”