PARENTS are staging a fight-back against toy industry practices they claim are “sexualising” young children, and have named seven items they consider among the most offensive.

The list includes a Peekaboo pole-dancing kit, thongs for young girls emblazoned with the phrase “eye candy” and pink eraser and stationery sets stamped with the bunny logo of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire.

Since the list was posted on Alpha Mummy, a blog for working mothers on Times Online , it has received 75,000 hits in a week and women’s groups are picketing chains such as WH Smith that stock the products.

Campaigners argue that modern pop culture has made sexuality so ubiquitous that it is costing children their innocence and dignity. They want schools to ban suggestive toys to protect pupils in the way some have outlawed Heelys wheeled trainers and iPods on safety grounds.

Michele Elliott, the director of the children’s charity Kidscape, who has challenged toy makers about the practice, said: “It is excellent that parents are starting to rebel. None of us is a prude but it is time people said ‘no more’ and voted with their money.

“There will always be some bubble-headed parents who will buy these toys but what they are doing is sexualising their children before they are ready. Kids should be allowed to develop and learn these things at their own pace.”

The campaign is aimed at a marketing phenomenon nicknamed “kids getting older younger” or “age compression” in Britain’s £2.2 billion-a-year toy industry.

Ten years ago cuddly toys linked to a film such as The Lion King could make £500m for Disney. But dolls and stuffed animals that a decade ago were bought for eight to 10-year-olds are now sold to children under six. Their older brothers and sisters are rejecting traditional toys in favour of more sophisticated products previously aimed at teenagers.

The competition from the internet, MP3 players and cellphones means toy manufacturers are increasingly tempted to market adult-oriented products to children. The trend towards increasingly “adolescent” toys for young children has spread to giving a “sexy” image to clothes and toys.

One of the seven toys on the campaigners’ list is a Bratz Forever Diamondz Doll Funky Torso, described by one critic as “looking like a pole dancer on her way to a gentleman’s club” rather than a plaything for tots.

Other items on the list include a Barbie Hot Tub Party Bus — in which the doll and her friends enjoy a travelling spa bath and disco. The list also features the Polly Pocket So Hip Cruise Ship and My Scene Bling Bling Spa in which the doll “hangs out at the coolest spa in town”.

Jennifer Howze, who compiled the list, said she had been particularly angered by the Playboy items. “It’s obscene that Playboy markets bright pink eraser sets to the younger set,” she said. “Girls shouldn’t have school supplies emblazoned with the logo of the OAP [Hefner] in a smoking jacket.”

Tesco removed the £49 pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was condemned as “extremely dangerous” by family campaigners. It is now sold with a “strictly for adults only” tag.

Flair, a British toy manufacturer that produces the Sylvanian Families range, is preparing a “keep childhood special” advertising campaign to help steer parents away from buying grown-up material for their children.

Seven sinners

The Peekaboo dance pole

Sexy thongs for girls

Playboy eraser sets

Bratz Forever Diamondz Doll Funky Torso

Polly Pocket So Hip Cruise Ship

Barbie Hot Tub Party Bus

My Scene Bling Bling Spa

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