It's hilariously ironic that a fashion inspired by keeping prisoners safe from self-harm by removing their belts, might, in fact, make you . . . a prisoner.

Some American states have banned "sagging", the wearing of ridiculous-looking low-slung jeans that make wearers look like a two-year-old who's just got off the potty, saying: "Wee-wee done Mammy - can you pull up my pants please?"

Residents of a Louisiana town could now face six months in jail for showing their boxers off by wearing jeans so low that you'd wonder how they don't just completely fall to the ground. Arkansas has already banned them and now Florida is considering following suit, outlawing the fashion.

Of course this will, with depressing inevitability, make even more boys want to follow the look.

As style goes, it's right up there with girls, who bear far more than an inch to pinch, wearing a diamante-clad thong up and under tacky designer tracksuit bottoms.

Well, I wouldn't let my teenage boy bear the mortification of going out like that. Yes, I know. I sound like a mother, but that's the point. Part of a parent's job is to put up with lots of things, but call a halt when their child is about to be ridiculed beyond belief.

I'd imagine anyone who saw him, with the waistband around his knees and colourful boxers on show to the world, would probably wonder what kind of a home he came from at all.

The finger-pointing and curious glances would surely be enough to put even the most determined guy off.

The "sagging" look has even been derided by none other than Barack Obama, who told young men to "pull up their pants" during his campaign.

It started off as a rebellion by rap artists to copy prisoners issued with ill fitting garments and whose belts had been removed in jail to protect them from hanging themselves. Charming, eh?

But it all gets really ridiculous when you see grown men in their 20s who look like perverts with their propensity to show off their underwear. In my day, we called them flashers and they were usually laughed at, or arrested.

Now, I'm sure the cops in any country have better things to be doing than whipping out a measuring tape to see if the trousers are below the regulation waistline, but perhaps it's just time they weren't cool any more. Maybe Simon Cowell would do us all a favour and start wearing them: then the craze would be over in a flash.

In the meantime, I propose to laugh out loud at anyone on an Irish street whose boxers I can clearly see. Some things are best kept wrapped up.

- Sinead Ryan