Richard Tomkins: An end to the age of innocence
Kids grow up so fast. Or should I say too fast? This week Mintel, a market research company, published a survey of British youngsters showing that 85 per cent of 14-year-old girls regularly used make-up. More disturbingly for those worried about the waning innocence of childhood, 63 per cent of 7-10-year-olds wore lipstick and 58 per cent used perfume. And 49 per cent of boys aged 9-10 used a deodorant, even though boys of this age are usually too young to have turned smelly.
Perhaps we should just file these statistics under “moral panic” alongside others showing that, in England, 50 per cent of 15-year-olds drink alcohol every week and 40 per cent of 15-year-old girls have had sex. Yet undeniably, children are getting older younger; in many rich countries, even by the age of eight, their love of toys and play starts giving way to an obsession with music, fashion and entertainment.
It is true that many parents, ambitious for their children, push them into growing up too quickly. But much of the blame falls on marketers for targeting youngsters at an ever-earlier age with grown-up products and brands. And today's children are far more exposed to the realities of the adult world because of their easy access to global media - the television in the bedroom, the internet and so on.
One sign of the times: although the idea has been dropped for the moment, Britain's government recently examined the possibility of reducing the voting age from 18 to 16, having already reduced it from 21 in 1969. Demos, a UK think tank, went further, suggesting in a report last year that the voting age should be aligned with the age of criminal responsibility - in other words, 14.
At this rate, adolescence will have disappeared as a distinctive life stage in a generation or two, with youngsters progressing directly from childhood to adulthood before their chronological age has entered double digits. The paradox, of course, is that far from perpetuating a trend, this will take us back to where we were for most of human history, and where many developing countries remain today.
The western idea of adolescence and the teenager, after all, is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating from the mid-20th century. Economic necessity prevented earlier generations from cosseting their offspring through long periods of transition to adulthood. In fact, even the concept of childhood is arguably quite recent.
In the Middle Ages, at least outside the ranks of the ruling classes, children generally had a prolonged infancy to the age of about seven and were then regarded as small adults ready to be hurled into the world of social responsibility and hard work. Little changed with the arrival of the industrial revolution, except that labouring in the factories and mines replaced labouring in the fields.
Throughout successive eras of history, horrifyingly high mortality rates discouraged parents from developing too close a sentimental attachment to their offspring; for the most part they were regarded as economic assets to be exploited rather than little innocents to be protected and nurtured. It is worth noting, too, that universal education was introduced not out of concern for the welfare of children but to alleviate the social problems that arose after technological progress led to the elimination of many youngsters' jobs, creating high levels of youth unemployment.
Eventually, as children were taken out of the adult world and placed in the protective care of the educational system, new ideas about the nature of childhood evolved - possibly encouraged by a decline in child mortality rates, which meant parents needed to have fewer children to produce a few survivors and might even start remembering their names.
Today, education in many cases extends protective care to the age of 21 and beyond and, far from being an economic asset, children have become a substantial economic liability. You really have to want them to have them, so that those now brought into the world, at least through planned pregnancies, are probably more treasured than at any time in history.
We should not be surprised, therefore, that parents worry so much over any perceived threat to their children's welfare. Yet it is also possible to see another explanation for concern over getting older younger.
Perhaps there really was a golden age of childhood in the west - not in some idyllic, far-off era of pre-modern history, but quite recently, after the appalling ravages of childhood diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio had been brought under control, but before obesity and depression had set in; after rising living standards had begun to bring opportunities for travel, entertainment and fun into children's lives but before soaring divorce rates had brought widespread family breakdown; after children had stopped being mined for profit by their parents but before they started being mined for profit by advertisers, brand owners, the media, the music business and myriad other commercial interests.
To the extent that such an age existed, you can understand why parents like me, who grew up in it, should want to recreate it for their children.
Alas, it was just a historical aberration: a fleeting interval between the era when children stopped being exploited as producers and started being exploited as consumers. Child labour laws may keep children out of the sweatshops but, in the face of today's commercial pressures, no amount of legislation is going to rekindle their enthusiasm for tiddlywinks, pressing wild flowers or endless re-readings of The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.
市场促销 扼杀童真
孩子们长得真快。或者，我要不要说长得太快了？市场调查公司Mintel本周公布了一项对英国青少年的调查，表明85%的14岁女孩经常使用化妆品。对那些担心儿童越来越丧失天真烂漫的人士来说，令他们更感到困扰的是，7-10岁的孩子有63%涂唇膏、58%抹香水。9-10岁的男孩中，则有49%使用一种除臭剂，尽管这种年龄的男孩一般说来太小，还没有发出什么体臭。
也许我们只应将这些统计数据归档为“道德恐慌”；但同时另有数据表明，在英格兰，50%的15岁孩子每星期饮酒，40%的15岁女孩已经有了性经历。不过无可否认，孩子们越来越少年老成。在很多富裕国家，甚至在孩子8岁以前，他们对音乐、时装和娱乐的迷恋已经取代对玩具和玩耍的热爱。
的确，许多父母对孩子的前途怀有雄心，从而迫使他们成长过快。但在很多情况下，该被谴责的是市场销售商。他们以青少年为目标，不断降低年龄标准，推销成人产品和品牌。与以往相比，今天的孩子更无遮蔽地面对着成人世界的种种现实，因为全球性媒体唾手可得，其中包括卧室里的电视机、国际互联网等等。
这里有一个当今时代的象征：英国政府最近研究了将选举年龄从18岁降低到16岁的可能性，虽然这一意见已叫暂停。此前，在1969年，选举年龄已从21岁调低。英国智囊公司Demos走得更远，在去年的一份报告中它建议，选举年龄应该和刑事犯罪责任年龄一致，换言之，也就是14岁。
以这样的速度发展下去，作为一个特定年龄阶段的青春期在一两代人之后就会消失；年轻人的实际年龄还未进入两位数，就会从童年直接进入成年。当然，这里的悖论是，上述现象远远不是让一种新潮流永久持续下去，相反却把我们带回了人类历史上的大部分时期，也把我们带入了许多发展中国家的现状。
毕竟，西方观念中的青春期和青少年期只是一种相对较晚的现象，源于20世纪中叶。经济的贫困使得更早的一代代人不可能在儿孙走向成年的漫长过渡期内一直溺爱他们。事实上，可以说就连童年这一概念都是相当新的概念。
在中世纪，至少在统治阶层以外，儿童拥有一个较长的幼年期，直到7岁左右，然后他们就被看作小大人、随时可以抛到充满社会责任和艰辛劳作的世界中去了。工业革命的到来没有导致多大变化，只不过工厂和矿场的劳作取代了田地里的劳作而已。
高得可怕的死亡率贯穿着一个接一个的历史时期，使父母避免与子女发展太亲密的依恋之情，子女主要被视为待开采的经济资产，而非需要保护和抚育的小天真。值得注意的还有，普及教育最初不是出于对儿童福利的关怀，而是为了减轻社会问题。由于技术进步，许多青少年的就业机会化为乌有，产生了很高的青少年失业率，社会问题也随之产生。
最后，随着把儿童从成人世界中挑出来，置于教育体系的监护之下，关于童年性质的新观念开始发展起来，这一发展或许还受到了儿童死亡率降低的鼓励。低死亡率意味着父母不需要生育像过去那么多的子女，就能产生一定数量的存活子女，甚至可能开始记住子女的名字。
今天，许多国家将监护期延长到了21岁和21岁以上，儿童不再是一种经济资产，而成了一种切实的经济负担。所以，人们确实是想要孩子才会生孩子。结果，现在降生到世界上来的那些孩子，很可能比历史上任何时候都更受珍爱，至少那些因计划怀孕而降生的孩子是如此。
所以，如果我们发现父母只要觉察子女福利受到威胁就忧心忡忡，对此不用感到吃惊。不过，人们对少年老成现象的关切，也可能找到另一种解释。
也许在西方确实存在过一段儿童的黄金时代。它不是存在于近代史以前的某种牧歌式的远古时期，而是相当晚。那是在白喉、麻疹和小儿麻痹症之类儿童疾病的可怕肆虐得到控制之后，但也是在肥胖症和抑郁症流行之前；是在生活水平的提高将旅游、娱乐和嬉耍带进儿童生活之后，但也是在离婚率的上扬导致普遍的家庭崩溃之前；是在父母停止在儿童身上挖掘利润之后，但也是在广告商、名牌厂商、媒体、音乐商业以及成千上万其它商业利益集团在儿童身上挖掘利润之前。
那样一种时代确实存在过，所以你可以理解，为什么我们这些成长于那种时代的父母希望为子女重新创造它。
唉，那个时代仅仅是一次历史的失常，是儿童停止作为生产者而受剥削、开始作为消费者而受压榨的时代之中的一个短暂间歇。童工法可以保护儿童不进血汗工厂，但是，面对今天的商业压力，却没有任何一点立法，旨在重新点燃儿童们对挑圆片游戏、压野花标本和一个劲阅读《福洛普西小兔们的故事》的热情。
