Saw this article on the marketing of teenage-level music, clothes, movies, and television to children younger than 13.
Kids look and dress older. They struggle to process the images of sex, violence and adult humor, even when their parents try to shield them. And sometimes, says Tom Plante, a psychiatrist, parents end up encouraging the behavior by failing to set limits — in essence, handing over power to their kids.
The article is interesting if you are just now having to deal with this phenomenon, or know people who are. But this story isn't new. Anybody with teenagers has been struggling with the commercialization of childhood for more than a decade.
With our oldest, we were extremely careful about music, television, and movies. Much more careful, in fact, that a lot of the other parents we came in contact with. When people say that it is up to parents to monitor and avoid programs that are inappropriate for their children, it's obvious that they haven't had to do this themselves. In short, you can be very careful in your own home, but you cannot dictate what happens in other places such as daycare, friends' houses, and even school.
Sure, you can change babysitters, forbid your children from going to the houses of friends who watch inappropriate programs, but what do you do when the influence is happening in school?
What I witnessed was the influence of other schoolchildren on what my child wanted to watch, wear, and listen to. I guess what I'm saying is that the sexualization of childhood can be an assault on families even when they are doing what they can to control their children's listening and viewing habits.
It's understandable that 'tweens want to do the things they see teenagers do. Those things look fun and fascinating and free. But 10-year-olds lack the capacity to understand what "hottie" written across their backsides really means when a 30-year-old reads it. This article was interesting as far as it went. It's too bad there wasn't more information in it about what parents can do to help avoid some of the worse aspects of teen culture.
|