The Changing Notions Of Children

The Changing Notions Of ChildrenWhat is a Child? Initi each(prenominal)y this may appear to be a elemental question we all bind both(prenominal) experience of pip-squeakren and puerility, perhaps through family, friends or your receive baberen, some people have close contact and bonds with chelaren. There is likewise a wealth of people, in many unalike professions, who work with children of all ages in many types of settings. Also it is impossible to ignore the simple fact that invariablyy liberal on this planet was, once, a child themselves. It is unaccented we all have some experience of children and childishness, and most people allow for have some very clear notions of what childhood is or what it should be. However once you begin to look a little deeper, it becomes far more involved than one might at first imagine there are many different factors which subject childhood today. This paper forget analyse this question further, looking at definitions of a child and how childhood has changed during the twentieth and twenty first century. Taking into account the effect of the media, consumerism, advertizing, boastfuls changing attitudes and child connect policy, in order to evaluate how these factors have changed and shaped modern childhoodMore than sixty years ago, in 1948, the studyity of the worlds countrys signed up to the United Nations Declaration of Humans Rights (Lee, 2001). This landd that all human beingnesss were authorise to certain basic uprights, which no state could remove from them. Furthermore a little over twenty years ago, in 1989, the United Nations passed a further set of rights specifically for children the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child (Lee, 2001). One might question the reasons behind this extra convention the original declaration cover all human beings so why would children need their own special set of rights? (Lee, 2001). This gulf mingled with children and heavy(p)s within global gu idelines reflects the trend of viewing adults and children as fundamentally different types of human (Lee, 2001 pg.5). Traditionally the spacious majority of societies have con human facered adults to be complete, constant and self regulating where as the child is seen to be incomplete, mutable and requiring guidance (Lee, 2001). The sociologist Jens Qvortrup (1994) explained this fissure between human adults and human children eloquently by describing adults as human beings and children as human bonnys (cited in Lee, 2001 pg. 5). Now this paper give look at different standpoints, which sack up be used to view the notion of what children and childhood areThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 touch ons a child in the future(a) way a human being below the age of 18 years un little under the faithfulness applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier (UNCRC, Article 1, 1989). This definition of the child would fall under the category of a legal d efinition another legal way to define a child would be by using the age of criminal responsibility. The age that a someone becomes criminally responsible varies greatly from country to country, in England and Wales the age was raised to ten years oldish in 1963, it had antecedently been eight (Children and Young Persons Act 1963, section16). However until the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 the law presumed that children under fourteen were doli incapax. Meaning the law regarded them as being incapable of distinguishing the difference between what is right and what is wrong, and therefore could not be convicted of a crime they had committed. Unless the criminal prosecution were able to definitively prove that the perpetrator was fully aware that their actions were wrong (Crime and Punishment Act 1998, section 34). The age of criminal responsibility impose by England and Wales and the even lower age of eight in Scotland, are the lowest within the European Union. The UN Committee on th e Rights of the Child has criticised the UK for the low ages imposed stating article three of the UNCRC which requires that during criminal proceedings the childs outgo interests must be held in primary consideration (Broadbridge, 2009).Another perspective to look at when delimitate the child would be to study the concept from a sociological standpoint. What does the term child and childhood crocked to association? What is their notion of a child? These are complex questions and the answers will inevitably vary depending on the country and culture one is studying. Michael Wyness (2006) used the playing-child construction to define childhood this encompasses the notion that childhood equals a time of play, without responsibilities. By using this definition Wyness also offers a definition for adulthood if childhood can be characterised through a lack of work therefore adulthood can be characterised as being a time for work and responsibility (Wyness, 2006 pg. 9). This would sugges t that childhood is a socially constructed phenomena found on the ideas that people within a given society hold. This notion of childhood being a social construction is not a new idea the French historian Philippe Aris (1960) has also suggested that childhood is a fairly recent construction of society. Aris claimed that until the fifteen century children in western Europe were considered as miniature adults and therefore believed to have similar mental abilities and personal qualities as adults. Although collectible to their smaller physical presence they were viewed as physically inferior compared to a fully grown adult (Montgomery, Woodhead, 2002). Philippe Aris work, Centuries of Childhood (first published 1960), was influential in attracting academic consideration towards the study of childhood merely his work has been subject to plentiful criticisms. Such as how he drew his conclusions about medieval society through the essence of studying art from the period. Due to the subjective nature of art, studying a society in this way may give an inaccurate picture of how that society viewed a particular subject. A further criticism was the lack of explanation for the change in attitudes towards children (Hill, M, Tisdall, K, 1997).A society which views children as being a completely different type of human being compared to adults, will believe that the child has different ineluctably to be fulfilled than the adults within their society. One example of this can be seen in successful areas of the industrialised world, where a wealth of products are available which are exclusively tailored for children. Items such as toys, clothes, cots, food stuffs and medicine are scarcely a snippet of the vast array of child centred accessory adults will encounter in various retail outlets (Montgomery, Woodhead, 2002). As head as these rather requirement commodities, there is also an overwhelming range of products designed for entertaining children. There are boo ks, magazines and television convey holidays and theme parks educational software and computer games. These are just some of the things available which render for children, turning childhood into a lucrative, commercialized business (Montgomery, Woodhead, 2002).The increasing trend in this type of consumerism aimed at children, has further led to a massive growth in advertising aimed at children. Companies now go through huge totals of money per annum on advertising their brand to children, whereas comparatively twenty years ago the figure for this type of advertising would have been virtually nonexistent (Dunn, Layard, 2009). Research has shown that brand loyalty develops in children from a very early age studies have shown that even children as young as two will treat a new toy differently depending on whether that child has been exposed to the toy previously through the bureau of advertising on television. Once they reach the age of three children tend to elect leading b randed products, which are subject to mass media marketing compared to a non branded product which tastes on the dot the same (Dunn, Layard, 2009). The purpose of advertising is obviously to make the consumer desire a certain item or brand over any other similar items available. However advertising also has the knock on effect of making people, adults and children alike feel that they need more materialistic items than they would otherwise believe. This can move over parents feeling that they need to spend more and more money in order to make their children riant in a survey conducted by the Childrens Society nine out of ten parents stated that advertising pressurised them into spending more than they could realistically afford (Dunn, Layard, 2009). Consumerism also has negative effects for the child a major study was conducted in 2004 by Juliet Schor, into the effects of the media and consumerism on children. Her study has found that if all other aspects of a childs life were equal, high exposure to media would led a child to be more materialistic, having problems relating the their parents and being at higher risk of mental health issues. These risks increase even more for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are financial support with little household income to being with (Dunn, Layard, 2009).Childrens experience of childhood in the twenty first century will differ vastly from even their own parents experiences just one contemporaries before them. This is partly repayable to the change in childrens leisure activities which in the last decade have shifted to included much less physically active pursuits (Dunn, Layard, 2009). Studies have shown that children are spending less time than ever before pursue physical activities. Physically inactive pursuits such as television, video gaming and the internet becoming ever more popular (Dunn, Layard, 2009 pg.54). This bloom in new technologies has brought a wealth of knowledge and entertainment t o our fingerbreadth tips. However it has also been linked with increases in three dangers encouraging the discourse that wealth and beauty equals mirth encouraging aggressive models of relationships and that it encourages less physical activity and unhealthy lifestyles (Dunn, Layard, 2009).The change in adults attitudes towards what pursuits can be considered safe for children is one reason for this decline in the amounts of physical, outdoor activity undertaken by modern children. by dint of the media, vast amounts of information regarding child murder cases are made available and easily accessible to the world-wide public, resulting in these cases being more prominent in peoples thoughts (Dunn, Layard, 2009). This leads people to believe that the number of children being murdered, specially being murdered by strangers has been steadily increasing over time however this isnt the case. Home chest of drawers statistics show that the risk of children being murdered by a strang er are very minimal, averaging nigh eleven per year shows that for the vast majority of adults their fears for childrens safety are unfounded (Dunn, Layard, 2009). In fact a child is at much greater risk within their own home. The NSPCC believe that for each generation more than one thousand children will be killed before adulthood, most at the hands of a violent parent or carer (Cunningham, 2006 p.235).These high profile cases in the media have also led to childrens rights becoming more prominent within societies and indeed also the Governments thoughts. There has been a deluge of child related policy passed through the UK organization, reflecting how attitudes towards children have changed children are being viewed as separate beings that have individual needs and are in need of protection.Just one of these policies is the Children Act 2004 this Act was developed and implemented following the findings of Lord Lamings 2003 inquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbi, who di ed in 2002 (Duffy, Pugh, 2010). In response to the Laming report the government published the Green Paper Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003) the prime minister at the time, Tony Blair, described it as the most significant development for children for more than thirty years (Duffy, Pugh, 2010 p.9). The overall outcomes that the Green Paper and the consequent Children Act of 2004 hoped to achieve was to improve the expectations of all children, narrowing the fissure between high and low achievers via the path of reconfiguring the services available for children and families (Duffy, Pugh, 2010). The Act also set out five outcomes which all children, right from extradite until the age of eighteen, should be able to achieve. These five outcomes are to be healthy, to be protected from all forms of harm, to lie with and achieve in their lives, to be able to contribute positively within their society and finally the force to achieve economic wellbeing (Anning, Ball, 2008). Whilst the intention of this Act appear to hold a childs well being as paramount in its agenda, some professionals have voiced concerns over potential negative side effects, it might present for the most vulnerable of children (Womack, 2006). Under the Act a massive database containing information on all twelve million children living in England and Wales was created (Womack, 2006). Experts in the field of safeguarding children have suggested that the sheer amount of data recorded in this database, will make it easier for genuine cases of child neglect and abuse to hook through the net. Under a system that detects threat to a child, in even in the most trivial of matters, may mean a child under serious threat of harm will not be identified (Womack, 2006). When services are already looking for the needle in a haystack is it really useful to make the haystack even bigger? (Womack, 2006)Having looked at the legal and sociological perspectives of childhood and having taken into account the influ ence of the media, consumerism, advertising, adult attitudes and child related policy. The focus of this paper will now turn to look at the feelings and ideas that children have about what it means to be a childWendy Stainton-Rogers conducted interviews with children from around the world as part of research for a book about childhood (Stainton-Rogers cited in Montgomery, Woodhead, 2002). In these interviews children were asked, what did being a child mean to them? One child aged eight, when interviewed and asked this question replied Im a child because, if I was a baby I would still be small. And, and now Im a child because Im not a baby any more. Because Im, because Im grown up. And a baby is sort of like, is like about one year old, two years old or three years old (Stainton Rogers cited in Montgomery, Woodhead, 2002 pg.7). This statement appears to show that the child questioned was somewhat confused as to exactly what a child is. They had some clear thoughts about what made them a child, but appeared hesitant in being able to let off their thoughts. Another child stated that they felt that they would become an adult afterwards their bat mitzvah, saying that after that they would feel more grown up (Stainton Rogers cited in Montgomery, Woodhead, 2002 pg.7). This suggests that a childs religion will impact their feelings of what it means to be a child that childhood ends with certain religious rites of passage. One child felt that a child was somebody who was still learning and being moulded into an adult (Stainton Rogers cited in Montgomery, Woodhead, 2003 pg.7). The answer that this child gave would tick off in very well with a socially constructed model of childhood that the purpose of childhood is for the adult members of a society to shape and mould children into acceptable members of society for the future.From completing the research for this paper, it has become clear that there is no single, universal answer to the question what is a child. Both childrens and adults views on childhood and what it means to be a child will vary vastly depending on culture, religion and the country where they live. To state that a child is a human being under the age of eighteen simply just isnt enough. Children are all individuals and no two will ever be the same just as no two adults ever will be. In order for children to be happy and grow into well rounded, balanced adults their individual needs have to be met and to be protected from serious harm. It is wrong for adult society to simply believe that a child is just an unfinished lump of clay in need of sculpting in order to become the adults society expects for the future. Children should be seen as important members within all societies, whom have the ability to positively contribute to the society in which they live..