Question. Child Abuses. Are we seeing something new, or now detecting something that was already there?
That is a very, very hard question to answer. For a start anything which is dealing with sexual behavior is going to come up against a wall of silence and lies. Its not something any of us really want to discuss. But it seems like we are going to have too in the post Savile, street gangs world.
My hunch, and it is a hunch after reading into the Child Commissioners interim report is we are seeing something new. The report is big on the new world of communication and the internet where gangs and individuals can more easily target the preferences they are looking out for.There is a lot in that. We know that venereal disease amongst the over 55s is rising as they are dating more easily through wider use of the internet. But I think there might be a much bigger problem emerging within society that could be a big driver in all this and will be very hard to combat and reverse.
Its a pretty much nailed on Granism that kids are growing up too soon and this is because of all the sex on TV. Half of that could well be true. In 1997 a study found that more kids were reaching puberty much earlier than thought and this trend is on the increase. This is called precocious puberty its being strongly linked to diet. We are eating too much, and that seems to be the trigger for what is now becoming a new normal, Doctors are seeing more and more children under 10 reaching puberty. Boys as well as girls.
If children are reaching puberty earlier and the trend continues the effects will be huge. When puberty is reached then sex itself comes into the equation. Yes you can chain them up if you like but my money is on mother nature. Sexual activity brings with it risky behavior. No 1 signal that a child has reached puberty is smoking, with it comes roaming, tantrums and misbehavior. This is I think the link to child abuse, if more young are having sex then ergo more of them are going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the instances will rise, as the numbers of sexually active children rise.
The other suspect in all this is stress. It seems there was a correlation with girls staying children longer by having Fathers in homes with male siblings, this is a very touchy subject for obvious reasons, it fly's in the face of the post nuclear family and the politics around it. Is feminism diminishing the natural role of men, sort of issue. Modern social Science says that the family unit is just a social construction. Thus the Fathers/males issue has been downgraded to "stress"
I think they got it right the first time, Happy children from happy homes have less stress. Stressed children comfort eat (especially Girls) and then we are back to the puberty trigger. An unhappy child is more likely to be in a unhappy situation and in the long run is going to have more chance of being one of the unfortunate children in the 16000 as being identified in the report as being at High risk of being abused. Its a self reinforcing cycle. And in the other direction we know that children from two parent families with siblings (if the parents stay together there is more chance of siblings) do better at school, especially in Language which is not surprising as they have more people to communicate with. Less chance of going on benefits and going to prison, the list is long. Thus in the long run you get the stratification of society with more of a gulf between the top and the bottom.
So Gran was half right, but its not the skimpy tops for young girls that are causing it as protested by feminists looking for an excuse, that's the symptom. I am pretty sure if they were not approaching puberty early they would still be desiring dolls houses and action man (or is that just plain sexist?).
Yes we can catch and punish, especially organised child abuse but the forces in mother nature could well thwart our efforts to go further.
I really do hope I am wrong, If we cant look after our children properly we really have failed as a society and civilisation.
Two Parent Families are best - Labour
Silver separation - the surge in older divorce
Starting puberty very early carries risks of psychological problems, RCOG
Study: U.S. boys face early puberty, too
Early Arrival
STD 1 in 4 Teens. 40% in Sexually Active
Size Zero not to blame, GOSH
3 in 100k Children with serious eating disorders
Afro-Carib Girls & early puberty
