CHYS MIDTERM

Child

• A young person. 

• According to Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a child is anyone under 18 unless the law applicable to them recognizes adulthood earlier. 

Childhood 

• A social concept or category used to describe and understand children. 

• Its meaning changes depending on culture, society, and historical period. 

Teenager and Adolescent 

• Subcategories of children, generally referring to older children. 

• Teenager is not a term used universally. 

• Adolescent is a more scientific term referring to young people going through developmental changes.

Youth 

• Youth as an age: The age range considered youth differs between countries and organizations. 

• Canada: Often used to refer to young people up to age 18 in certain contexts. 

• African Union: Defines youth as people up to age 34. 

• Youth as a concept: The meanings, expectations, and characteristics society attaches to young people. 

Adultism

Discrimination or unfair treatment of young people based on the belief that adults are more capable, knowledgeable, or important than children.

Ways society can attempt to protect children

• Limiting access to certain information. 

• Supervising children. 

• Limiting exposure to danger. 

• Increasing child protection measures. 

Child protection

Actions, policies, and systems designed to protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and harm.

Risks of protecting childhood innocence

• Keeping children unaware of adult realities can make them more vulnerable to dangers. 

• Children need age-appropriate information to understand and recognize risks. 

Examples:

• Sex education

• Racism

• Workplace safety

Adultification

When certain children, especially racialized children, are viewed as older or more adult-like than they actually are. 

• Some children are not given the same innocence and protection as others. 

• For example, a Black child may be viewed as more responsible or mature for the same behaviour that would be considered normal childhood behaviour in a white child. 

• This can result in harsher judgment and punishment.

Development

• How society understands children's development affects how children are treated.

• Physical, Cognitive, and Emotional

Socialization

• The process of learning the norms, values, beliefs, and practices of society. 

• Connects psychology and sociology. 

• Often viewed as a top-down process. 

Top-down socialization

• Children are treated like empty vessels. 

• Society teaches them how to behave and what is expected. 

• Children are expected to learn and follow society's standards and norms.

Being

Recognizes children as people with rights and experiences

Becoming

focuses on children developing into adults

structure vs. agency

Structure:

Social forces influence people.

People make their own choices.

Can create opportunities or limitations.

Agency:

Allows people to act within or challenge limitations.

Focuses on society and institutions.

Focuses on individual action.

Corsaro’s interpretive reproduction

Children actively interpret, adapt and reproduce culture rather than simply absorbing what adults teach them. They can also create new meanings and practices.

Protection vs. Participation

Protection focuses on keeping children safe. Participation means allowing children to express opinions and take part in decisions affecting them. Both are important and must be balanced.

Why are teenagers sometimes viewed differently from younger children?

Teenagers are often associated with rebellion, risk and trouble rather than innocence. This can lead to increased surveillance, regulation and punishment.

How do social beliefs about childhood affect laws?

Beliefs about children's maturity, responsibility and vulnerability influence age-based rules about education, work, criminal responsibility and consent.

Global North

A broad term often associated with wealthier, industrialized and politically influential countries. It is not simply a geographic category.

Global South

A broad term often associated with countries that have experienced colonialism and face economic or political inequalities. It includes diverse countries and communities.

Why can Global North and Global South be oversimplified categories?

They can hide differences within countries and suggest that all countries in either group share the same experiences.

UNCRC

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international agreement that establishes children's rights to provision, protection and participation.

Provision rights

Rights to basic needs and services, including food, shelter, healthcare and education.

Criticism of UNCRC

Its universal standards can reflect Western or Global North assumptions and may not fully recognize local cultural understandings of childhood.

Strength of UNCRC

It creates shared international standards for children's rights and gives advocates a framework to challenge abuse, exploitation and exclusion.

How does Imoh connect to UNCRC

It highlights tension between universal age-based definitions of childhood and local understandings of when and how children become adults.

How can the UNCRC be both helpful and potentially neocolonial?

It provides important protections and participation rights, but its standards may reflect Western assumptions. A balanced approach respects local contexts while protecting children's rights.

Reflexivity

Examining how your own experiences, values, assumptions and social position influence how you understand the world and act.

Positionality

Recognizing how your social position and experiences shape your perspective.

Social location

A person's position within social structures, including factors such as race, class, gender, age, ability and education.

Why is reflexivity important when working with children?

It helps professionals recognize their assumptions, understand power differences and avoid treating their own experiences as universal.

When did Children's Aid Societies begin in the United States and Canada, according to the lecture notes?

The first society emerged in the United States in 1853, and Canada's child-saving movement developed later, with a society established in 1891.

What is the role of Ontario Children's Aid Societies?

They receive and investigate reports of suspected abuse or neglect, support families, supervise foster care and arrange adoptions.

What is mandatory reporting?

A legal duty to report reasonable grounds to suspect that a child may need protection to a Children's Aid Society.

Reasonable Grounds

An objective basis for concern based on observations or facts. Proof or certainty is not required before reporting.

What is the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (2018)?

Ontario legislation that governs important aspects of child and family services, including child protection.

Why is child welfare a provincial responsibility?

Child protection services and systems are primarily organized and administered by provincial governments, so laws and structures differ across Canada.

What does aging out of care mean?

A young person reaches the age limit for state care and transitions out of the child welfare system, potentially losing important supports.

What challenges can youth face after aging out?

They may experience housing instability, lower access to post-secondary education, unemployment, lower income and disconnection from support networks.

What is Ready, Set, Go (2023)?

An Ontario initiative intended to support young people transitioning out of care. It provides additional support but does not eliminate every transition challenge.

Why is poverty not automatically neglect?

Poverty is a lack of resources. A family may struggle to provide necessities because of financial barriers rather than a lack of care or concern.

How can poverty contribute to child welfare involvement?

Financial hardship, inadequate housing and limited access to services can create difficult conditions that lead to reports or investigations.

What was the Sixties Scoop?

The widespread removal of Indigenous children from their families and communities, often placing them with non-Indigenous families, contributing to cultural disconnection and trauma.

What did the 2016 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling address?

It found discriminatory underfunding of First Nations child and family services and required changes to address unequal treatment.

Why are Black children overrepresented in Ontario child welfare?

Systemic racism, biased reporting and investigations, poverty and Western or middle-class assumptions about parenting can contribute to disproportionate involvement.

What is a Family Group Conference?

A meeting that brings children, family members and community supports together to participate in decisions and create a plan.

How does a Family Group Conference support participation?

It gives children and families opportunities to express their views and contribute to decisions rather than having professionals make every decision alone.

What is child welfare abolitionism?

A position that argues the current child welfare system may need to be fundamentally dismantled and replaced with systems that better support families and communities, rather than simply reformed.

What is the main tension within child welfare?

The system is intended to protect children, but its practices can also reproduce racism, inequality, family separation and cultural disconnection.

How did children contribute economically in earlier historical periods?

Children worked in family businesses, agriculture, apprenticeships, factories and resource extraction.

Why did some people historically support child labour?

They viewed children's work as a source of family income, useful skill development and economic productivity.

What is the public sphere?

The part of social life associated with paid work, business and economic activity.

What is the private sphere?

The part of social life associated with home and family life.

How did childhood become increasingly separated from paid work?

Child labour restrictions, compulsory education and changing ideas about innocence helped establish childhood as a period focused more on schooling and development.

What did Ontario's historical factory laws aim to do?

They introduced restrictions on children's employment in factories and gradually expanded workplace protections.

What did compulsory education laws change?

They required children to attend school for specified ages and periods, reducing the expectation that children would work instead of attending school.

Why does child labour continue globally?

Poverty, demand for cheap labour, weak protections, inequality and limited access to education can contribute to its continuation.

What are child worker movements?

Movements where working children and youth advocate for safe and dignified working conditions and the right to participate in decisions about their work.

What benefits can young people gain from employment?

Income, independence, workplace skills, responsibility, experience and social connections.

What risks can young workers experience?

Unsafe conditions, exploitation, stress, low wages and interference with education. Young workers may also be less confident about reporting unsafe situations.

What is a commodity?

Something that can be bought and sold in a market.

What is commodification?

The process of turning something into a product or service that can be bought and sold.

What is the commodification of childhood?

Selling idealized images, experiences and products associated with childhood, sometimes making parents feel they must purchase certain things for their children.

What is the commodification of children?

Using children themselves as part of the marketplace, such as featuring them in advertising or monetized online content.

How can children act as consumers?

They purchase products, influence household spending and are targeted by advertising and marketing.

How can consumer culture affect children's belonging?

Products and brands can become symbols of social status and inclusion. Children who cannot afford certain items may feel excluded.

How does consumer culture influence parents?

Marketing can pressure parents to buy products or experiences by suggesting that certain purchases are necessary for a good childhood.

What is media literacy?

The ability to critically evaluate media, advertising, influencers and online content, including the messages and interests behind them.

What is kidfluencing?

When children create social-media content and influence audiences, often promoting products or brands.

What are possible benefits of kidfluencing?

Creative expression, income opportunities, communication skills and a sense of agency.

What are possible concerns about kidfluencing?

Privacy, exploitation, pressure, consent, control over earnings and the blurred boundary between work and play.

What is sharenting?

When parents share information, photos or videos about their children online.

Why is sharenting controversial?

It can affect children's privacy, consent, safety, digital footprints and control over how they are represented online.