Modelling class for kids pulled over 'ethics'

An adult education centre in Karlskrona in southern Sweden has cancelled a modelling course for children aged five to eight after receiving a number of calls about the offering, Sveriges Radio Blekinge reported on Thursday.

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The program's objectives at the Medborgarskolan in Karlskrona included "movements, walking and exhibition techniques," "test shooting, posing techniques" and "nutrition and diet," the report said.

Carl-Johan Östh, the rector of Medborgarskolan, which has campuses across the country, admitted that courses occasionally slip into the curriculum that are actually intended for an older audience.

"It was the wrong target group. They were too young, so they removed the course," he told The Local. "The local level must think twice before offering courses on the web. There will be serious discussions about it at the regional level to prevent it from happening again."

Medborgarskolan offers courses and cultural activities to anyone living in Sweden ranging from dance, language, painting and boat certification.

According to Östh, certain courses are open to students from 13 to "over 100 if they can get here," while others are available to even younger students.

Östh believes that the instructor who had proposed the course on the Karlskrona branch's website may have lived in the US or England, where beauty pageants for young children are more common, but are rare in Sweden.

The decision to remove the course was made at the regional level and Östh revealed that the regional director only started a month ago.

"It's not wrong for us to have rules," he said. "It's more of an ethical discussion to have at the regional level. I think it's good that we have this kind of discussion because we have an ethical platform to discuss these kinds of questions."

He added that the school did not receive any formal complaints about the class, but that not all course proposals are accepted, such as those relating to healing or stargazing, because they do not conform to its rules.

"We have a lot of courses, over 60,000 every year," he told The Local. "In the future, we'll have the same rules for all of Sweden."