Uh oh! Your life will never be the same, Kristy!
I have 2 boys, 6 & 8 who are both competitive cheerleaders. They don't cheer for any teams, they just travel around and compete. We seem to spend every waking hour at the gym. They sure do love it, though! It's a fantastic sport and teaches them so much about self-confidence, team work, leadership, and poise. I'm sure you will all have fun watching her!!!
HeyMickey, you might want to get a little more information about competitive all-star cheerleading before going off on a rant like that.
These days, the competitions are held on spring floors, (just like elite gymnasts use). They have 2 full size spring floors at our gym to practice on. The kids all receive strength training, and they do have weight machines in the gym. My 6 year old can do many, many more push ups in a row than one of his best friends who happens to be a competitive gymnast. (She's a level 4, about to move up to a level 5, if you're curious). He also works out more hours a week than she does.
You seem pretty hung up about the number of hours they work out a week, but for the same level of experience compared to gymnastics, the kids in cheerleading around here tend to work out more than their gymnastics counterparts. The kids that are competing in gymnastics that are the same age and have the same number of years of experience as my kids, work out 4-5 hours a week, compared to my kids who work out about 8 hours a week. Sure, elite level gymnasts work out 5 hours every day, but that's FAR from your typical competitive gymnast. VERY few ever make it to that level. The same applies to swimming and diving, also. With any sport, the further you go, the more hours you work out. Cheerleading is absolutely no different.
As far as tumbling technique, that depends on which gym you go to, just as with gymnastics. There are good gyms that teach good technique, and there are bad gyms that do not teach good technique. The challenge is to find a good gym that stresses proper technique and safety.
Most gyms, schools, and competitions have adopted stringent safety guidelines to help protect their athletes. If you violate a safety guideline at a competition, it usually means you are automatically withdrawn from the competition. They take it very seriously. If a gym doesn't have stated safety guidelines that they adhere to, I certainly wouldn't take my kids there. It's just common sense, like everything else we let our kids participate in. Actually, at the gym where we used to go, they had far, FAR more gymnastics injuries than they ever had cheerleading injuries. I once watched a girl carried off on a backboard in an ambulance when she fell off the parallel bars and they thought she had a spinal injury. Luckily, we've never had any injuries like that in any of the cheerleading programs we've been a part of.
Is it dangerous? Sure, just like soccer, football, gymnastics, diving, baseball, and countless other sports are. It's still a lot less dangerous than getting in your car and driving to work or school every day, though.
She has been cheering ever since she came home tonight! Any other "young" cheerleaders out there?
) was on a dance team and went to dance competitions all the time dressed up in flashy costumes with too much makeup. Now it's cheerleading, and I see very little difference. It'll be the cool thing to do until enough little girls fall off the top of pyramids or whatever and severely hurt themselves. 
