Maddison Gabriel, the (just) 13-year-old Australian model who caused her fellow citizen-convicts to wonder how young is too young, is now making waves on these shores. And Maddison's mom is now being insulted most rudely; she's being compared to Britney Spears' mom.

She listened to US critics compare to her to the likes of troubled pop star Britney Spears' mother Lynne, who propelled her daughter to early stardom as a Mouseketeer on US children's television show The Mickey Mouse Club. She was also stunned by comments on internet sites calling for her to be jailed because she had allowed her daughter to model at age 12; Maddison turned 13 on Sunday.

Even noted authority Janice Dickinson, the world's first supermodel, objects! "I'm the world's first supermodel and it's young. It's way too young," she told Matt Lauer. Maddison's mom is appalled.

Mrs. Gabriel said she was trying to protect Maddison from the backlash and had chosen not to show her the American Today show segment, which is able to seen on the show's website on the internet. "It's hard because she uses the internet like any 13-year-old girl does ... at first she was excited to see her name come up on (web search engine) Google and had a giggle, but I don't want her to see what the sites are saying now. At the moment she doesn't know about it."

Uh, yeah, that's gonna last!

US television savages child model's mum [Goldcoast]