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Controversy Over Nudist Camp For Kids

Posted: 3:22 pm EDT June 24, 2003Updated: 3:05 pm EDT June 30, 2003

SPEAK OUT! Join The Debate Over This Controversy

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- They say it's their right to bare all, but some people are saying a nude summer camp for children isn't about taking it all off, it's taking it too far.

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Summer camps are a part of many children's summer vacations. But there's one that is creating a national controversy and it's located in the Central Florida area. It's a nude summer camp and more than two-dozen children attended this year.

Just the idea of a nude summer camp sounds strange and some say it should be illegal. One lawmaker is fighting to get it banned while a local mental health expert says that a camp promoting nudity shouldn't be child's play.

"It doesn't seem weird at all. I like being nude," says 11-year-old Alex Schuttauf who, along with her 9-year-old sister, just got back from a nude summer camp near Tampa

"You get the marks on your skin from the swimsuit and it hurts sometimes. When you're nude, you don't have any of those and you can swim a lot better," says Madeline Schuttauf.

"I understand that [a lot of people may consider this sick], so my comment back to them is, this is where we have been called to, this. As a family, that we are okay with this," says Georgie Shuttauf, the girls' father.

In fact, they promote it. Erich Schuttauf is the executive director of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR), a group responsible for a promotional tape that shows nude children and teenagers.

From a Kissimmee nudist club to 259 others, the industry made $400 million last year. But a local psychologist says the kid's camp is a bizarre way of starting them young and the tape is even worse.

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"In the wrong hands, it's child porn," says Dr. Deborah Day, child mental health expert.

But the AANR is proud of the video production, which they say is not child porn.

"Only if you're equating nudity with obscenity. That is just not the case," explains Shuttauf.

One Florida lawmaker has contacted the governor's office about stopping the kid's summer camp, which is in its 11th year. Also, we contacted the FBI regarding the promotional videotape. They would not comment on it specifically, but did say they would pass it along to their Innocent Images Task Force.

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