Beauty giant Mecca has defended allowing kids to join its loyalty program without proving parental permission, as girls as young as seven plead for gift cards and expensive, harsh adult products that can damage their skin.

The skincare and cosmetics chain’s Beauty Loop loyalty program has become the envy of Australian retail, creating a lucrative cult that has bolstered its dominance of the sector.

Customers are rewarded for reaching higher spending thresholds – the more they spend, the more generous boxes of freebies they earn in quarterly handouts. There are other perks too, such as for birthdays, under the scheme similar to Qantas’ Frequent Flyer program in its structure and encouragement to spend or risk losing status.

However, business analysts have observed it is cultivating an in

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