Photographed girl defends nude magazine cover

A girl who posed nude as a six-year-old is defending the use of the photograph on the front cover of an arts magazine.

Now 11 years old, Olympia Nelson says she has no problems with the photo her mother, Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, took of her when she was six.

The photo is on the front cover of this month's Art Monthly magazine, and the New South Wales Government is referring the magazine to the Classification Board.

The picture has reignited public debate about the use of children in art, after controversy in May when artist Bill Henson's photographs of a naked prepubescent girl in a Sydney gallery were confiscated by police.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he cannot stand the picture and Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will ask the Federal Police to investigate.

But Olympia Nelson has taken umbrage at those comments.

"I think that the picture my mum took of me has nothing to do with being abused," she said.

"I'm really, really offended by what Kevin Rudd said about this picture."

Her father, art critic Robert Nelson, says the Prime Minister's criticism of the work is uninformed and damaging.

"I think he's welcome to have an opinion on art - I think that's to be encouraged," Mr Nelson said.

"I think the problem arises when, as he did with Bill Henson, he declared that the images are revolting and linked them to the protection of children without a shred of evidence."

Calls to police

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will ask the Federal Police to investigate the photo on the cover and more within the magazine.

Dr Nelson says the photos are indefensible, whatever the motivation.

"It is absolutely essential that we stand up to this," he said.

"What these people have done in this publication and using the photographs of this child in this way is send a two-fingered salute to the rest of society.

"I will be asking the police authorities to investigate whether there is any breach of the law as it stands by the publication of these photographs."

Joe Tucci from the Australian Childhood Foundation says the photo could have repercussions.

"We have seen these sort of cases in the [United] States and elsewhere, where a person in their 30s or their 40s decides that they want to be the President of the United States or they want to be a teacher or anything, they want to take up a public role, and those photos come back to haunt them," he said.

'Artistic duty'

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.

Art Monthly receives funding from the Australia Council, which has issued a statement saying the magazine has been and remains a very effective and valuable means of communication for the visual arts.

The Federal Government says the Australia Council will now be asked to draw up a set of protocols on the representation of children in art.

The magazine is also funded by the Federal and ACT Governments, and ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has defended the magazine's right to publish the photo.