Nikki Webster Press Archive

By Kristy Sexton

AN ADADEMIC has blasted as “cultural pedophilia” the inclusion of child pop star Nikki Webster un a magazine’s list of sexy women.

The schoolgirl, who turned 16 three weeks ago, was placed No. 96 in men’s magazine FHM’s 100 sexiest woman poll.

University of the Sunshine Coast senior lecturer in popular culture Karen Brooks said tagging Webster with a “sexy” label was alarming. “In light of what has been happening with the events surrounding the Governor-General, I find it fascinating that there are all of these concerns about paedophilia and here we have a leading magazine in Australia claiming a girl who looks no older than 12 is sexy,” Dr Brooks said.

“We are engaging in a type of cultural pedophilia. When we put young girls that look like they are under the age of consent and portray them in a sexual way, that is wrong.”

Dr Brooks said the marketing of padded bras and G-strings at girls under 10 and portraying teenagers such as Webster in a sexual way were “all connected”.

People who marketed the lingerie at children should have “a good, long, hard look at themselves… The crazy thing is it’s the spillover effect and mums wanting a ‘mini-me’,” she said.

Child development expert Elspeth McInnes urged mothers to monitor their children’s clothing choices. She called low-cut T-shirts and bras a “pedophile’s paradise.”

“The wholw notion of training younger girls to present themselves sexually and to think about their sexual presentation is very, very dangerous,” Dr McInnes said.

“We’re not going to stop pedophilia by banning sexy lingerie for children but we don’t need to train our kids to present for them.”

FHM editor John Bastick defended the inclusion of Webster on the list as “a bit of fun”.

“Every year the guys vote for very weird things,” Mr Bastick said.

“I don’t think (Nikki Webster) is sexy, not at all. When she fills out a bit in a year or two, she could be; with a bit of styling and a good bit of marketing, she could be very attractive.

“We wouldn’t normally put her in but we had to check her age and she is 16 so that’s why she went in.

“It’s a bit of fun. That’s all it is.”

Webster’s spokeswoman Lisa Hamilton said Webster was unable to be interviewed “because she’s in school and busy with exams.”

View scan from this article

It is just possible that the story you are reading here will not be to your liking. I am not sure I like it myself. I am not a fan of the national pastime of eating our own young, especially if they are pretty, clever and precocious; and this one, some would say, is a national treasure, a cover-girl who counts Kylie Minogue as a friend, whose records go platinum on release, and whose old jeans can pull $22,000 at a charity auction. That’s more than Kylie’s do.

So I want to make it plain I am not setting out here to eat Nikki Webster. I am not setting out to play the Wicked Witch to her Dorothy. What I want to explain is why, after 25 years in newspapers and thousands of interviews, I could be reduced to fist-thumping frustration by a quick chat with a 15-year-old girl.

It is that phrase, “15 year-old girl”, that is the nub of the problem. Looking back, I did not actually interview Nikki Webster, the 15-year-old girl, for 35 minutes at her West End apartment this week. I interviewed Nikki Webster, the phenomenon.
Continue reading Too good to be true

SYDNEY teenager and Bali survivor Kristie Webster has urged all Australians to wear a smile today to remember the people killed in last weekend’s tragedy.

Kristie, who lost her mother Robyn in the bombing, spoke for the first time yesterday about the horrific events in Bali. She asked Australians to forget the gruesome images of the past week and instead “try to remain as positive as possible”.

The grieving Websters will attend the Australians Together ceremony today, to watch their family friend Nikki Webster perform a song in memory of Robyn Webster. The families are not related.

Continue reading Please, could everyone smile to honour my Mum

Only two years ago, Robyn Webster and her daughter Kristie made an excited phone call to their longtime family friend, Nikki Webster, to congratulate her on a stunning performance at the Olympic opening ceremony.

But last week, the message on Nikki Webster’s phone was the worst possible: Robyn and Kristie had been in Bali when the bomb blast occurred. Robyn, 45, of Marrickville, died in the explosion and Kristie was badly burnt.

Today, at the Australians Together tribute in The Domain, Webster sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow to honour the family she has known since birth, and to acknowledge their terrible suffering since last weekend.

“It will definitely be emotional, but I’m doing it for them,” Webster said before the event yesterday. “I’m doing it to tell them how much I love them.

Continue reading Tribute to bomb victims