Today’s Status of Childhood
February 14, 2011 by Derek Ries
There is no doubt in my mind that in the past 20 years, society has taken a dramatic transformation. Now more than ever, people can be presented with any information by the click of a mouse. With the creation of the Internet, and its strong acceptance by our society, virtually every house in the United States is equipped with a computer or laptop. As great as this transformation has been proven to be for business and educational purposes, it has flipped today’s idea of the status of ‘childhood’ on its head. This overload of media presents children with access to all types of knowledge, good or bad. Up until the mid 90s, it was much easier for parents to prevent their children from viewing explicit material; all they had to do was be conscious of what their kids were watching on TV. However, because we are now living in an Internet driven society, more than ever, children are viewing and retaining explicit material. In my opinion, this avenue of media, along side our more than ever explicit material acceptance has altered the status of childhood into what it is today, and has radically shorted or diminished childhood’s duration and it’s distinction between adulthood.
The category of sexuality has been altered regarding the status of childhood. No matter where a child looks, whether it is on television, the computer, at school, or acts by an older sibling or adult, sexuality is a main topic of discussion. Recently, I feel that our society has become more accepting of sex and mentioning it in public. In essence, I feel that in recent times the idea of ‘shame’ has gone in a reverse progression then how we have discussed it in class. Few things are being hidden from children and this over flooding has cause the public to subconsciously accept it. Adults are now educating children on sexuality, and parents are putting their kids on birth control at ages younger than ever before. Despite the fact that this education is there to be safe and with positive hopes, it’s also backfiring by giving children the green flag to engage in such acts, causing the duration of childhood end at an earlier age.
Our society is very trendy and fashionably oriented. Children are very easily influenced by adults, and are thought to believe that image is everything. Because children are impressionable towards adults and celebrities, they try to dress like them by wearing risqué clothing at a young age, and often, many parents are not skeptical to purchase this clothing for them. By dressing years mature of their age, they are growing into adulthood that much sooner.
http://www.preteenagerstoday.com/resources/articles/growingup.htm
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_wsj-kids_today_are_growing.htm
http://www.familycircle.com/teen/parenting/sex-talk/growing-up-too-fast/
