A pregnant Britney Spears drives home in her Mini convertible with hair curlers in her hair and baby Sean in the back. Safety recommendations call for infants less than a year old to sit in rear-facing seats.

People Magazine reported that in February, photos surfaced of Britney Spears driving her SUV in Malibu with her son, Sean Preston, sitting on her lap behind the wheel. The pictures raised obvious questions because her young son was not in a car seat.

LOS ANGELES - It's not a role she auditioned for, but pop star Britney Spears has become a poster woman for child car-seat safety.

"In one regard, she's done more for child safety-seat awareness than anyone else in California," California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall said Tuesday. "The fact that she's a big star doesn't play into it for us."

Front-page photographs in Tuesday's New York Post and New York Daily News depict the 24-year-old pregnant pop star driving her convertible Mini Cooper with 8-month-old son Sean Preston in the back, sitting in a car seat facing forward.

The photos — in which Spears also sports hair curlers — have sparked debate over whether the singer violated the California vehicle code.

The code states that child safety-seats must be properly installed according to federal safety guidelines which recommend that babies up to a year old and up to 20 pounds ride in them in the back seat facing backward, Marshall said.

However, the singer's publicist Leslie Sloane Zelnik said Spears was in "total compliance" with California state law.