The Sexualization of Early Childhood

     After reading the article about sexualization, all I could do was shake my head. The children today are growing up way too fast for their age. And we have no one to blame but ourselves. We are the one who are  buying the makeup, clothes, shoes, paying for tattoos and piercing on body parts that weren’t made to be pierced. I don’t know of any child who has a job that pays them enough to even afford what they are wearing these days. I agree with the statement in the article about how we are not alarmed that today’s children are learning about sex and sexuality.

     Children have always been curious about sex and sexuality from an early age, and it is good for parents and schools to give them honest and age-appropriate information. But what children are learning today isn’t normal or good for them ( Levin & Kilbourne 2009). Notice that the first people to teach children about sex and sexuality should be their parents, with the school being second, if for some reason the parents chose not to educate their child, then questions like the ones at the beginning of the article will arise.

     The first example of how young children are exposed to a highly sexualized environment is their parents. Some parents do this by allowing their child to have access to the internet, to phones and television and these items are usually in the child’s bedroom, where they are not supervised while using them. The second example is Peers. Peers can provided a variety of misinformation about sex and make it appear so colorful and inviting. There’s usually bragging involved, this bragging can be very tempting to an inexperience child. This type of misinformation can and usually leads to pre-marital   sex and unwanted pregnancy and also various types of sexually transmitted diseases. The last example is the media; this includes television, radio, music videos, internet, and magazines. With so many families being busy with work, naturally, this becomes the babysitter and the form of entertainment. With so many children coming home after school to an empty house, this is how they get their information and sadly it is usually the way some of them lose their lives.

      The implications that this may have on children’s healthy development is that lack of getting the proper age appropriate information can greatly affect positive, healthy growth development in children. As an early childhood professional, I do not feel it is my job to educate a child on this subject. However, I do believe in creating a partnership with parents, where we can work together as a team in educating their child. I will reinforce what the parents are teaching at home.

     I was greatly influenced by the topic this week because our children are being targeted on the internet and this bothers me as an early childhood educator but most of all as a child advocate. When sex in the media is talked about, it is often criticized from a puritanical perspective—there’s too much of it, it’s too blatant; it will encourage kids to be promiscuous. The problem is not that sex as portrayed in the media is sinful, but that it is synthetic and cynical. The exploitation of our children’s sexuality is in many ways designed to promote consumerism,

not just in childhood but throughout their lives ( Levin & Kilbourne 2009).  We must be mindful of who our children are hanging around, who they are talking to on the various social networks and being mindful of what we buy for them to wear. Keeping up with the Joneses is not the way to keep our children safe.

Reference

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf