Good Afternoon Parents, thank you for joining me this evening. Today we will be discussing an article, published by The Atlantic - titled ‘The Overprotected kid’ - and its intriguing argument and ideas on child safety. Hannah Rosin - the author of the article - illustrates the cultural shift in safety in the 1970s to the modern ideology of ‘responsible parenting’.
In her article, Hannah Rosin retorts back to how ‘childhood norms’ were like in the 70s, to highlight the how drastically parenting methods have changed over the course of 40 years. She notes that her daughter had only been unsupervised for ‘10 minutes in 10 years’ of her life, whereas her mother would just ‘expected to show up for dinner’ as a kid. Despite this ‘free range’ style …show more content…
Where she may argue that the world we live in is actually less dangerous, I would like to outline that it is in fact not. We are a rapidly advancing society, but we must understand that with change comes more risk. We have access to things today that didn’t seem possible in the 70s. Think Social media… the Internet. A playground for pedophiles. Since 1998, internet crime involving the sexual exploitation has risen by more than 400%. Four. hundred. Percent! Not only that, but the there has also been a significant increase in downloading, possessing and distributing child pornography online. So much so, that it is now estimated to be a $20 billion industry worldwide. As more and more children are signing in online, the potential by these offenders seeking vulnerable subjects increases. Statistics from Childline, show that counselling sessions for children worried about online sexual abuse jumped by 24 per cent to 3,716 in 2015/16. Despite this, we are still blatantly allowing our children to go online. To be exposed to this form of exploitation. If we aren’t doing anything to prevent this, in fear of being considered ‘overprotective’ or referred to as ‘helicopter-parents’, What can we say about ourselves as
In her article, Hannah Rosin retorts back to how ‘childhood norms’ were like in the 70s, to highlight the how drastically parenting methods have changed over the course of 40 years. She notes that her daughter had only been unsupervised for ‘10 minutes in 10 years’ of her life, whereas her mother would just ‘expected to show up for dinner’ as a kid. Despite this ‘free range’ style …show more content…
Where she may argue that the world we live in is actually less dangerous, I would like to outline that it is in fact not. We are a rapidly advancing society, but we must understand that with change comes more risk. We have access to things today that didn’t seem possible in the 70s. Think Social media… the Internet. A playground for pedophiles. Since 1998, internet crime involving the sexual exploitation has risen by more than 400%. Four. hundred. Percent! Not only that, but the there has also been a significant increase in downloading, possessing and distributing child pornography online. So much so, that it is now estimated to be a $20 billion industry worldwide. As more and more children are signing in online, the potential by these offenders seeking vulnerable subjects increases. Statistics from Childline, show that counselling sessions for children worried about online sexual abuse jumped by 24 per cent to 3,716 in 2015/16. Despite this, we are still blatantly allowing our children to go online. To be exposed to this form of exploitation. If we aren’t doing anything to prevent this, in fear of being considered ‘overprotective’ or referred to as ‘helicopter-parents’, What can we say about ourselves as