Her divorce from Kevin Federline has been finalised and the custody battle is on.

Life & Style ran a cover story with giant pictures of the two boys. "Britney's Babies:

Help Us!" the cover screeched. "Out-ofcontrol Britney puts her sons in danger again during a wild trip to Las Vegas." US Weekly went with: "Britney's Boys: Help! Soda in baby bottles, Mommy's many men, nighttime cries for Daddy's love. Kevin battles for SEAN & JAYDEN as Britney grows more dangerous."

You wonder how the boys will feel in a few years looking over this scrapbook of their childhood.

Federline's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, spoke to Us Weekly: "I can say that all of these things that come out [about Britney], if true, are things that would concern me. [Kevin] is someone who has gone out of his way to protect his kids as much as possible. . . He's somebody that never has tried to boost his appearance in public through his children."

Britney's descent into career car-crash mode has been well documented over the past fortnight. From the disastrous interview with OKmagazine where she absconded with thousands of dollars worth of clothes after allowing her dog crap on a Zac Posen dress, to appearing paranoid saying she thought the ceiling was caving in and taking several 'bathroom breaks', to a failed music video shoot for a new (woeful) song.

The tabloids, after making and breaking Britney (although she hasn't done herself an awful lot of favours), are now the self-appointed judge and jury on the welfare of her children. It's a new low. Britney's babies are now legitimate tabloid fodder . . . as easy a target as herself, her bodyguards, assistants and the various escapades they all engage in.

Pushing the spotlight firmly in the faces of the toddlers is Perez Hilton, the unstoppable gossip blogger who now gets eight million hits a day to his site PerezHilton. com. "Yes, we're going to hell, but. . .

The new cover of Us Weekly is genius!" a post on the blog squawked when the images of the children were released, "We love it! We're LIVING FOR IT! Those poor kids. Get them away from her!" Beating Britney up over her parental skills is questionable enough, but encouraging coverage of the lives of kids who haven't yet seen their second birthdays is hideous behaviour.

I never thought I'd say this but, seriously, won't somebody think of the children?