Mel C won't allow her daughter to watch explicit music videos.

The 40-year-old former Spice Girls singer - who has five-year-old Scarlet with ex-partner Thomas Starr - wants to ''protect'' her little girl, and though she allows the youngster to listen to Rihanna's music, she won't let her see her ''sexual'' promos.

Mel told the Daily Mirror newspaper: ''My girl Scarlet is a big fan of Rihanna, but I won't let her watch the videos - they're too sexual.

''I protect my daughter from it while I can, but she's growing up fast.''

In the 1990s, Mel and her fellow band members, Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown and Emma Bunton, championed the term ''girl power'' to promote female empowerment amongst their legions of fans.

However, the 'Wannabe' hitmaker believes that things have changed since then and some of today's female pop stars, like Rihanna, are encouraging women to be objectified.

Mel explained: ''For me it's almost like what we did with girl power has gone too far the other way, which defeats the object.

''I appreciate that it's a different generation now, but I don't consider that empowering.''

Meanwhile, Mel has previously slammed young female pop stars for not taking their younger fans into consideration when revealing things in interviews or taking part in more risque photoshoots.

Mel said: ''It's a long time ago since the Spice Girls were first together and we were criticised for being sexual.

''Yes, we wore crop tops, I mean look how much has changed. We always sat down as a group, be it photoshoots, videos, interviews, and if somebody felt something was inappropriate for our young fans, we did something about it.

''I think that's something young people in the music industry today, like Rihanna, should do now.''