New rules could soon be in place on the use of images of children following the controversial use of naked pictures of a six-year-old girl on a Federal Government-funded magazine cover.
The Government will ask its peak arts funding body to develop a set of protocols to be used when dealing with images of children.
Art Monthly Magazine featured photographs of a naked Olympia Nelson, who was six-years-old at the time the photographs were taken by her mother.
Families Minister Jenny Macklin has not set a timeline for the new rules, but says they will guide future funding decisions.
"We know that the sexualisation of children is wrong," she said.
"In this day and age with images being able to be transported all around the world via the internet in just a flash, images of children can be so badly and wrongly used.
"We also know that wherever you turn these days we have images of children on billboards and so many other places.
"Children being sexualised in ways that really doesn't let them have a childhood."
The New South Wales Government has referred the magazine to the Classification Board.
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson is also threatening to take up the matter with the Australian Federal Police.
"I will be asking the police authorities to investigate whether there is any breach of the law," he said.
However a spokesperson for the police says they have not been contacted by Dr Nelson and they are yet to receive any requests for an investigation.
'Really offended'
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he cannot stand the shots and no child that age could give their consent.
But Olympia, now aged 11 says she is proud of the photos and the Prime Minister's comments are out of line.
"I'm really really offended by what Kevin Rudd said," she said.
Fellow artists are defending the magazine's decision to use the photograph on its cover.
Martyn Jolly is the co-author of an article on the controversy that is published in the same edition of Art Monthly.
He is also the head of photography and media arts at the Australian National University.
He says the magazine had a duty to reignite the debate over children in art.
"I guess if you're the editor of a magazine which is meant to be reporting on Australia on a month-by-month basis and this has been the biggest thing in Australian art for a long time, you'd be [neglecting] your duty if you didn't actually discuss the debate," he said.
The controversial magazine cover comes in the wake of intense public debate over artist Bill Henson's photographs of a naked teenage girl which were confiscated from a Sydney gallery.
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