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WASHINGTON: Inescapable media images of sexed-up girls and women posing as adolescents can cause psychological and even physical harm to adolescents and young women, a study in the US has warned.

The pressure of what experts call "sexualisation" can lead to depression, eating disorders and poor academic performance, said the report, released by the American Psychological Association.

Adult women dressed as school girls in music videos, bikini-clad dolls in hot tubs, and sexually-charged advertisements featuring teenagers were among the many examples cited.

Such omnipresent images - on television and the Internet, in movies and magazines - can also have a negative effect on a young girl's sexual development, the study cautioned.

Based on a review of academic literature, the 66-page report noted that young adolescents and girls were particularly at risk "because their sense of self is still being formed".

The Italian government and two top fashion associations followed suit, signing a code of ethics in December after top Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died of heart failure, weighing only 40 kilos.

In France, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand recently asked a panel of experts to create a similar voluntary code for advertisers and clothing designers on how the female body should be portrayed.

The new study said sexualisation occurs when "a person's value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behaviour", when sexuality is inappropriately imposed or when a person is sexually "objectified".

Looking at popular music videos, the authors quoted songs by the Pussycat Dolls ("Don'tcha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?"), Kid Rock ("So blow me bitch I don't rock for cancer, I rock for the cash and the topless dancers"), and 50 Cent ("I tell the hos (whores) all the time, Bitch get in my car").

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