Between television, the Internet, and images in magazines and newspapers children are exposed to media in a way that they never have been before. On the radio they regularly hear music that features explicit lyrics. They take their cues on how to act based on what they see in the world around them. Thus, we see stores selling thongs marketed to ten year old girls, and six year olds wearing T shirts that announce them as “Hot Mama”.

It seems that most of the concern that people have is around two issues: sex and violence.

Violence

On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Kliebold set several bombs and began shooting people with guns at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. By the end of the day, they had killed twelve classmates and one teacher, and injured twenty one others, before committing suicide. In the aftermath of the massacre, investigators, psychologists and frightened parents and students all looked for reasons why these boys would do such a thing. Many speculated that it was the result of bullying and depression. However, many people pointed to the fact that boy boys listened to metal and “dark music”. They enjoyed playing violent video games like Doom and watching violent films such as Natural Born Killers. People argued that given all the violence these two boys had been exposed to in the media from a young age, it's not surprising that they acted violently.

Violence in the media is unavoidable. According to Aimee Tompkins in a 2003 article for AllPsych Journal, over sixty percent of prime time television shows violence. Even if someone is just watching the news they'll hear reports of war and crime. Cartoons show violence as comical. The Academy of Pediatrics says “More than one thousand scientific studies and reviews conclude that significant exposure to media violence increases the risk of aggressive behavior in certain children, desensitizes them to violence and makes them believe that the world is a ‘meaner and scarier’ place than it is.” At a time in life when they are meant to be sheltered and protected, kids are being bombarded with images of violence that evoke fear. Some argue that the result of this fear is a tendency toward violence.

Sex

Violence isn't the only concern people have about children being exposed to such media. In advertising there's a commonly held truth: sex sells. Show a beautiful woman or buff man in a commercial or print ad, and you'll get people's attention. We're told to buy products because they'll make you “sexy”. Singers ranging from Britney to Madonna, that people of all ages hear every day, sing about sexual attraction and sometimes even activity. Who is sleeping with whom is a large plot point in many television shows. Vivienne Pattison, of Mediawatch UK claims that “Exposure to sexually explicit media at a young age can lead to a range of problems, including low self-esteem, eating disorders and sexually transmitted diseases. While these problems are difficult for teenagers to cope with, we are particularly concerned by their impact on young children, who are becoming increasingly sexualized by the miasma of explicit material that they are surrounded by." Not only are children exposed to sexual content in TV shows, films, the internet and advertising, they're increasingly targets of that advertising. For example. Abercrombie and Fitch got in trouble in 2008 for marketing thong underwear to young girls with phrases like “eye candy” and “wink wink” on them.

It's clear that the widespread availability of different media means that we all have access to more information than ever before. Including children. But does that have to mean an end of childhood innocence? Different people have different ideas about how to respond to this. Some see it as an adults duty to protect children from the media, keeping close tabs on what they look at online, putting blocks on their TV and monitoring what films they see, what books they read, and what games they play. Of course this is only partially effective. You can't walk through a store without seeing some kind of sexually suggestive advertisement or product. You can't watch cartoons without seeing comical violence. Therefore some people think that the best thing to do is discuss these issues with kids. Many experts suggest that parents watch television with the children, and, when some kind of questionable content comes up, explain that what they're seeing or hearing or reading about may not be a realistic depiction of the way things are in the world. However, many adults think that discussing these things with kids is too much exposure in and of itself. Is keeping children ignorant really protecting them, or is it simply not empowering them to deal with issues that they will encounter sooner or later?

A lot of popular books with a teen target audience deal with some of the these issues. Popular fiction ranging from the Hunger Games novels, to the Twilight series to novels by popular authors including Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak, Wintergirls), Ellen Hopkins (Crank, Glass, Burned), and Sarah Dessen (Just Listen, The Truth About Forever) have been banned and challenged by schools and libraries for material that is “unsuited for the age group”. But who is to say that something is unsuited to a particular age group? If kids experience difficult things, shouldn't that give them the right to read about it (or watch a film/TV shows dealing with it, etc?) Author Ellen Hopkins responds that “These things--addiction, abuse, thoughts of suicide--touch lives every day, including young lives. Understanding the "why" of them can help change the horrific statistics that some people refuse to believe. Hiding your eyes won't make them go away. Helping people make better choices will. And it's hugely important to gain empathy for those whose lives are touched by them. It's hugely important to give them a voice. To let them know they are not alone.”

There is no easy answer. But another question also arises: are these threats to innocence anything new? There was once a time when children were regularly taught to shoot guns in order to help hunt to feed their family. When children worked on their families farms or in factories rather than attending school. When parents and children all slept in the same room, and whatever the parents said or did, the children could see or hear. In his work Centuries of Childhood, historian Phillipe Aries argued that during medieval times “childhood did not exist”. Children were considered to be small adults and were treated as such. The attempt to shelter children from the harsher realities of life is fairly new.

Once again, there are no easy answers to these questions, nor are there any “right” answers. After all, every kids is different: some kids may be ready and able to handle exposure to adult ideas and concepts. Others might not yet be ready to deal with these ideas emotionally or psychologically. But it is something to think about as we begin to take our first steps out into the world as adults. What would we want our children to see? Our students? Were we exposed to too much sex and violence as kids? Or were we too sheltered? To steal a phrase from Stephen Sondheim: “careful the things you say, children will listen”.