Parents are sending their girls as young as the age of nine to have their legs waxed and undergo painful beauty treatments

Beauticians say that young children are being accompanied by their parents to salons to have painful hair removal treatments.

Minister Linda Burney of the NSW Community Services criticized the practice. She said that mothers should never force their daughters to mature too quickly.

Most people would be shocked that girls as young as nine would feel that they need to have their legs waxed, Ms Burney said.

It raises much boarder issue of children which is the sexualization of children. Children should be allowed to be children and should not provoke them to feel that they need to follow what that they see in gossip magazines and in the advertising industry.

She warned that the sexualization of young girls could lead to depressions, eating disorders and anxiety.

Parents have to use their common sense in deciding when is the right time to allow their child to wax or have any other beauty treatments. But there was also an obligation on the part of the beauty industry, although regulation was not the answer, she said.

At the end of the day, it falls down on making a particular decision whether they will allow that client in the salon, Ms Burney said.