Brian Camenker, head of the Massachusetts-based Parents’ Rights Coalition, said this latest marketing trend is playing into the hands of pedophiles. He told the American Family Association: “A&F is selling clothes to make children sexually stimulating to adults.”

The appearance of thong underwear in a children’s store has outraged many parents. “I think of myself as fairly hip, and I think it’s just disgusting,” Julie McNamara of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin told the paper. She was one of several customers to storm the sales counter at the mall over the issue.

The underwear, in the smaller children’s size, could easily be worn by children even younger than 10. Carney defended the company. “It’s not appropriate for a 7-year-old, but it is appropriate for a 10-year-old. Once you get to 10, you start to care about your underwear, and you start to care about your clothes,” he told The Journal Sentinel.

So, if trends are left unchecked, even elementary schools will be forced to police clothing before recess.

“Thongs and freak dancing for teens and even pre-teens! How sad,” added BLI’s Janice Crouse. “Childhood is disappearing from our culture. In its place we have lewd behavior.

“Such dancing, while inappropriate and disgusting behavior for adults, is appalling and dismaying behavior for children. We express shock and horror that Palestinian children are taught to be suicidal martyrs while teaching our own children to become sexual beings without barriers, limitations or consequences.”

Meanwhile, as parents remain either unaware of the trend, or find it cute, teachers are finding themselves backed into a corner on dress and behavior issues. Educators who accept the challenge and try to fill gaps in their student’s parenting have come under fire.

Rita Wilson is on administrative leave while her “thong check” is being investigated. Some parents are demanding she be fired over the incident. Wilson told the Associated Press that if she had it to do over again, she would have refused to supervise the dance.

Meanwhile, 35 teachers at Rancho Bernardo High expressed support for Wilson. They are being led by English teacher Michael Ball, who told The San Diego Union Tribune, “Maybe she [Wilson] went over the line, but she was the only one doing anything.”

Thongs for 7 year olds

While Robinson considers his trio fairly down to earth, he still battles an increasing demand for brand-name clothing and video games. His weapon of choice is reason. "I try to get them to question (the motives of) advertising," he says.

It's a valiant effort, but not enough to counter the marketing efforts of multi-million-dollar companies.

James U. McNeal, a Texas-based psychologist and market researcher, is considered the guru of child marketing. "Children are consumers in training," he wrote in the Journal of Business Strategy in 1991. "Anybody can fool them, deceive them or cheat them. It takes a mighty good marketer to satisfy children's wants and needs and not do anything unethical, intentionally or unintentionally."

The business of marketing to children has expanded dramatically since McNeal wrote those words. Ethics, it seems, are increasingly getting pushed aside as companies vie for the Holy Grail -- brand loyalty.

Whiton Paine, a developmental psychologist and co-founder of Kid2Kid, a Philadelphia market research firm, developed an ethics audit in 1999 to discourage companies from sending messages that "either delay or unduly accelerate a child's development." In short, making children want drugs, tobacco, sex and booze is off limits. Refreshing, but unfortunately not everyone heeds the message.

Take, for example, thong panties for 10-year-old girls.

The "abercrombie" wing of clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, which targets seven- to 14-year-olds, caused a stir last month when it introduced its summer collection, complete with g-strings. Parents across the country were outraged, likening the store to a Frederick's of Hollywood of sorts for children.

But the company isn't pulling the thongs from their shelves (tweens are doing a good enough job of that themselves), and it's not making any apologies.

"It was cute, fun and sweet," spokesperson Hampton Carney told the Milwaukee Journal. The thongs, he said, are meant to be a modern-day version of Underoos. But instead of the superheroes of the '70s, phrases such as "eye candy" and "wink wink" are emblazoned on the front (there's certainly no room on the back).

Parents' opinions don't hold much clout in a world where tweens make businesses see green. Marketers aren't worried about convincing mom or dad to buy a product. Advice from hundreds of kid-oriented consulting firms says the same thing: talk to the end user; build brand loyalty with the tweens themselves.

In other words, get kids to fight the battle for purple ketchup.

This month, marketers from across the continent will meet in Manhattan for the Targeting Tweens Conference - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Marketing To Tweens. Topics for the two-day event are far-reaching, but the message is clear: Put tweens in the driver's seat.

Market research shows tweens are savvy consumers. They refuse to be talked down to, marketers can't try to be too cool (it'll backfire) and tweens want to make decisions about the things that impact their lives. They're happy to spend their money, and their parents' money, on products they can connect with -- the challenge for marketers is sparking that connection.

Television, radio and outdoor advertising all do the trick, but the Internet is increasingly the tool of choice. Tweens have grown up with computers. In a typical month, 73 percent of American children aged eight to 17 use a computer and 38 percent of them are online more than once a day. A quarter of them make online purchases.

The Internet makes a marketer's job easier. They can speak directly to the tiny capitalists-in-training; more importantly, they can interact. Interaction is key to building brand loyalty -- remember, tweens want to feel like they're in the driver's seat.

From its humble beginnings as a family butcher shop in Kitchener, Ontario, Schneider Foods has become one of Canada's largest food producers, partly due to its savvy marketing tactics. The makers of Lunchmate meals build relationships with tweens online with a fun, interactive game zone. Their website also features prizes, such as trips to Disney World or Space Camp, that appeal to kids.

Schneider's isn't alone. Legions of prepared and pre-packaged foodmakers are getting hip in an effort to win tweens' loyalty.

But there is a downside to a world of Pizza Pops and "Xciting!" Bagel Bites.

Tweens are the fattest and unhealthiest kids in history, according to a report released in February by the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. It revealed tweens watch too much television, play too many video games, eat junk and don't exercise.

"These are issues that can no longer remain on the back burner," says Dr. Anthony Graham, spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. "The rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes that we are seeing in young adults could give rise to a new generation who experience heart disease as early as their 30s, rather than middle and later life."

Today's tweens are the largest youthful demographic since the baby boomers. While their health could have a resounding effect on the future of the health-care system, their spending -- whether it's on items that are good for them or not -- is propelling economic growth now.

According to ACNielsen, there were 39 million American kids aged five to 14 in 1998; by next year, that number will have increased by 3.6 percent. The likelihood of marketers backing off from such a growing consumer base is slim.

Especially when the battle for tweens' attention has a far broader reach than their current top three expenditures: food, entertainment and clothing.

"When it comes to targeting kid consumers, we at General Mills follow the Procter and Gamble model of 'cradle to grave,'" Wayne Chilicki, promotion director at General Mills, told Mothering Magazine recently. "We believe in getting them early and having them for life."