In Search of the Child1 Meaning of Childhood  Childhood has been lost?  Children as threatened and endangered  Young prostitutes: TIMEaisa TIMEaisa  Young soldiers: BBC NEWSBBC NEWS  Children as a perceived threat to the rest of us  Anti-social  Sexually precocious

In Search of the Child2 The Role of Media  Primarily delivering the debate about the change  Frequently blamed for the phenomena  兒童媒體使用行為調查 兒童媒體使用行為調查  Fascinated with the “idea” of childhood  Hollywood  Entertainment business: Toy industries, Games…  Advertising: Nursing supplies…

In Search of the Child3 The “Children” Issue  Children’s Rights (to be protected)  Social Issues & Policies  Tight Censorship  Blocking hardware & Software (V-chip, CyberSitter)  Polarized Interpretation of Childhood  Childhood as disappearing or dying  Growing generation gap in media use  Technology Literacy vs. Parent Control

In Search of the Child4 Constructing Childhood  Childhood as a Social Construction  Meaning is subjected to constant negotiation  In public discourse and in the family, etc.  Law & Social Polices  Forms of child-like behaviors  Schooling as a formal social institution (regulation)  Contradiction in family and school  Exhort children to grow up  Deny certain privileges

In Search of the Child5 Representing Childhood  Primary Discourse  Produced by adults for adults  Produced by adults for children  Rarely by children  Systemic Segregation (since mid-19 th century)  Age of (parent) consent  Compulsory education  Eradication of child labor

In Search of the Child6 Representing Childhood (2)  Childhood as Distinct Stage of Life  Innate purity & natural goodness  Reflecting adults’ fascination of childhood (memory)  Exposing adult guilt & hypocrisy  Adult effort to control over children (argued by some)  Use the idea of “childhood” to secure the status of “adulthood”

In Search of the Child7 Childhood, Power, & Ideology  Social & cultural construction – what children should be.  Do children today live according to “our” (Western) conception?  Ideology & Social Movement  “politics of substitution”: fears about child → means for gaining public attention  Against homosexuality → Against pedophiles  Against pornography → Against child pornography  Environmentalism: “Children” & “The Future”  為國民小學請命；外籍新娘子女 為國民小學請命外籍新娘子女

In Search of the Child8 Ideology of Childhood (p.12) … the production of of texts for children …to sustain particular ideologies of childhood. Such activities has traditionally been characterized by a complex balance between ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ motivations. On one hand, producers have been strongly informed by the need to protect children from ‘undesirable’ aspects of the adult world. …obviously in the form of sex and violence. On the other hand, there are also strong pedagogical motivations: such texts are frequently… attempt to educate, to provide moral lessons or ‘positive’ image’, and thereby to model forms behavior that are seen to be socially desirable.

In Search of the Child9 Childhood as Exclusion  Definition & Rights are made mostly by adults  Essentially a Matter of Exclusion !?  What they are not  What they cannot do  Lacking or Incomplete  If Growth as Logical Sequence of Ages & Stages  Childhood as a process of becoming  Adulthood as a finished state?

In Search of the Child10 Maturity vs. Immaturity  Adult Qualities  Rationality, Morality, Self-Control, ‘Good Manners’?  Childhood  Truth, Purity  Adults need to get in touch with their ‘inner child’?  Concerns about ‘Crossing the Line’  Adult Power  Access & Control  Maturity, a relative term?

In Search of the Child11 Closing words… (p. 16) The attempt to protect children by restricting their access to media is doomed to fail. On the contrary, we now need to pay much closer attention to how we prepare children to deal with these experiences; and in doing so, we need to stop defining them simply in terms of what they lack.