Erosion of childhood

Postman:

• Argues childhood is disappearing.

• Children are being given the same right as adults.

• childhood is only possible if children can be separated and protected from the adult world - without secrets there can be no childhood.

• Mass media + TV have brought the adult world to children and childhood is no longer a time of innocence- reflected through the growing rate of children committing adult crimes.

• The separation of the adult world from the child world was what had originally caused the concept of childhood.

• Postman refers to children having the same same leisure activities as social blurring.

Palmer:

• childhood is toxic

• Technology and cultural changes have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development.

• E.g increase in junk food, computer games, intense marketing towards kids and growing testing in education.

• There is a growing rate in obesity, self harm, alcohol and drug abuse, violence and early sexual experience amongst the youth.

Criticism of postman:

• Opie argued that childhood is not disappearing.

• There is strong evidence that there is a continued existence of a separate child culture.

• For example in rhymes, songs and games.

Criticism of Palmer:

• Postmodernist view that children are becoming more important to the family in terms of their bond with parents