Miss Bimbo is an online virtual makeover game that's causing a lot of controversy. It was first released in France about a year ago and has 1.2 million members - mostly girls under the age of 16. Just a month ago the English version was released and over 220,000 girls have already signed up.

The goal is to "become the hottest, coolest most famous bimbo ever!" The game encourages girls to 'buy' virtual breast implants and weight loss pills.

Many parents are outraged. But here's a couple of comments from people reading about it at the Guardian;

Is this any different from boys games being all about shooting things, beating people up and being generally anti-social?

Children play at being adults. If adults are stupid enough to fixate on dieting, cosmetic surgery and celebrity body image, it is not surprising that children play at the same things. If you want to stop children playing disturbing games, you need to address the disturbing behavior of adults.

We don't know who's behind MissBimbo. It seems to be owned by a site called Games2Girls.com. Games2Girls is one of the top 900 sites worldwide (according to Alexa), with millions of unique visitors per month, but we were not able to find any information about the company. Anyone know anything?

Update: According to FOX News, Miss Bimbo site was set up by Nicholas Jacquart, a French entrepreneur. He moved to South London, recently and with a 30-year-old businessman called Chris Evans set up Ouza Ltd to promote Miss Bimbo in Britain. Ouza is an interesting choice for their company name.

According to Wikipedia, Ouza is 'a major leader of the fall from heaven in Christian mythology'. In the rabbinic tradition, Ouza is suspended between Heaven and Earth as punishment for having had carnal knowledge of mortal women. Ouza "is said to be constantly falling, with one eye shut and the other open, to see his plight and suffer the more. It is said that he now hangs, head down, and is the constellation of Orion."

Ouza must know they may be in for some serious parental wrath.