Sex article falls foul of guidelines

A feature in a magazine for teenage girls, headlined "I Slept with 40 Boys in Three Months" has fallen foul of the new body set up to monitor the content of such publications.

Sugar, a wildly successful magazine that has revolutionised the girls' magazine market, was found to have "suggested that promiscuous behaviour was acceptable and something to boast about" by the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel.

The panel also upheld complaints relating to a letter, published by the magazine, about lesbianism.

The complaints were made by Peter Luff the Tory MP for Mid-Worcestershire. Mr Luff was instrumental in setting up the Arbitration Panel. He said yesterday: "This was my first exploratory complaint to the panel. It shows that the panel will do its job if people use it."

Sugar was launched in the UK three years ago. It was designed as a younger version of monthly grown-up glossies like Cosmopolitan or Marie Claire and its sales have exploded so that other publishers have copied its formula.