Book 2 Chapter 1

Question	Answer
Children and childhood is often associated with the notion of innocence. The idea of childhood innocence is portrayed in many different sources	advertising, the media, art and literature. It is also evident in children’s lives in the form of material goods such as, clothing and toys
defining the innocence of childhood will have different meanings depending on what people believed conceptualizes it	some people childhood innocence means a lack of knowledge and understanding into adults lives (alcohol, drugs, sex), innocence in Christian religion is seen as the lack of sin or evil, in the legal world innocent is the opposite to guilty
Children are naturally innocent	This notion means that children have not yet been corrupted by society and the adults within them which supports the view by Romantic philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Children are blank states	The notion children are blank states is the same as John Locke (1962) believed that children were a blank state but ultimately products of their environment and thus need positive influences in the way of education, guidance and experience to become successful adults - good example Kaspar Hauser - naive with little life experience and does not understand the dangers others pose to hurt or harm him
Children are agents of redemption	Children are innocent and immature and thus lack the pessimism of adults as illustrated in characters such as Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow up.
Childhood is the basis of adult identity	Childhood experiences form the foundations for adulthood. Therefore, negative experiences causing psychological damage will in turn cause damaged
Children exist in a separate state	Children’s lives are separate of adult’s worlds due to the fact they have little sociocultural cultural experience they exist in separate state outside society.
Children have no place in consumerism	Therefore, they should not be targeted with use of media and advertising as this can cause pester power. Childhood is seen as lost once children become consumers.
Sheltered innocence is the notion described by cultural historian Garry Cross (2004)	The central idea surrounding modern childhood. Cross (2004) maintains that the romantic view of the Victorians was that childhood is precious, and should be protected. The 19th century saw the change in attitudes where childhood was respected and a separate state
Sheltered innocence in the 21st century, could now be described as adults trying to protect children from negative influences and avoid danger	For example, walking alone could be dangerous due to the risk of abduction (Link with Jamie Bulger) and the increasing amount of traffic. Limiting time spent using technology such as watching tv and playing computer games. Avoiding consumerism by banning certain TV channels with promote target adverts at children, or not allowing girls to play with Barbie’s and boys to play with guns. Such practices are adults trying to protect children’s innocence, perhaps because this is what they believed maintained their own innocence
Alison Pugh (2009) maintains that consumer control can be influenced by parents wanting to protect their children from negative influences in their society	For example, in the USA where Latino and African American families lived in deprived areas they often provide their children with entertainment such as Nintendo’s to keep their children safe within the house
Children can protect themselves from danger with knowledge (often called “street wise”).	For example, empowering children with knowledge about the dangers of sex, alcohol, natural disasters and drugs can provide them with the knowledge to make good choices rather than being niave and not have any understanding as to base their decisions and actions rather than protecting them for all bad experiences which could mean they are vunerable
Joanne Faulkner (p.g.12) argues that a child’s innocence will be based on the capacity for it to be protected.	Some children born into poverty will ultimately experience many more dangers and bad influences than a child living without such pressure. For example, in many majority world countries children have to work and have much more responsibility those other children of their age
Harry Ferguson (2007) claims that some children have their childhood innocence “contaminated”	talks about children that have been subject to cruelty from their parents and so end up in the care system - Link with Barnados
Images of childhood can be used to show how the idea of childhood innocence has changed over history	examples include; TV, media advertising and paintings e.g- Gainsborough 1756 “The Painter’s daughters chasing a butterfly"
pictures are so sacred they can also cause controversy as they are widely available, difficult to control and interpret	controversial image of children was that of the 1997 Estee Lauder advert called “pleasure”. It was meant to represent a father and son relaxing on a hammock with a dog in a ideal picture of domestic bliss trying to represent “pleasure for men”. However, associating an adult man with a young boy and the word “pleasure” proved to show mixed signals and some assumed the man was getting pleasure sitting with the young boy
Children’s bodies were visually used as the first sign of innocence which could be noted because they are free from sexuality and their minds were blank slates	pictures instantly created a visual image of innocence and how we shape our ability to understand it. Romantic portrait painters in the 18th century created many images of childhood innocence which became very popular in this genre such as “Cherry Ripe” by Everett was mass produced and used as a commercial image of childhood innocence throughout this era
Golden Age of Illustration was created in the form of photographs, which became increasingly popular and relatively cheap and easy for lots of people to use	Anne Geddes was one of the most popular photographers and has sold millions of pictures showing childhood innocence which is still extremely popular
photos have also contributed to the current crisis of childhood innocence	because such pictures have been confused with the fine line between innocence and adult’s sexual attitudes and passion of such images for example - Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland which captured pictures of young girls and in which he claimed was totally innocent but some of the pictures would suggest otherwise, Carroll maintained that the camera was a mechanic tool and was only capturing what was there to view
Freud and Foucault have both been very influential on understanding how childhood sexuality is understood	Freud was a psychoanalysis who maintained the notion that children were sexually “innate” and he developed such concepts as the Oedipus complex, Penis envy and death wish
Freud believed that children were born with sexual desires and attraction to the opposite sex.	He maintained that simple gestures young babies make such as thumb sucking and going for poo and examples of the first signs of sexual pleasure (i.e. oral sex and anal).
The sexualisation debate is created when young girls who were seen as innocent become aware of their sexuality and thus boundaries between flirting and charming become blurred	Many would argue that girls in particular in the 21st century are over sexualised by paraphernalia such as their clothes to look older and sexy. For example, the old fashioned style dresses with peticoats have been replaced by mini skirts and crops tops, some would argue this over sexualisation can lead to many problems in teenage girls such as eating disorders, low self esteem and even depression

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