The Social Media Ban for Under-16s Illuminates Our Erroneous Thinking About Children

 Is a potential social media ban for the under-16s the ultimate nanny state interference, the beginning of a full-blown censorship state, or a sensible decision to protect tech-addled children? It is probably all of the above. More uncomfortably, it throws much needed light on society’s misunderstanding about what it is to be a child, and even worse, parental neglect on a scale no-one is really prepared to admit.

The contemporary approach to children seems to be based on the idea that children are adults in small bodies. This has manifested in all sorts of monstrous ways. The most egregious is when police and social workers involved in the rape gangs suggested that children were able to ‘give consent’ to sexual activity. Not far behind is the foundational idea in the transgender ideology, that the thoughts of children concerning their sex are to be believed and acted upon. Gillick competency within medicine is the idea that certain children can drive their own treatment if they demonstrate sufficient understanding. Plans are afoot to let 16 year-olds vote in General Elections as they already can in local elections in Wales and Scotland. The age of criminal responsibility is 10.

These are extreme examples but the adultification of children is widespread and pernicious. At many schools, children are renamed students or learners. In medical and social work they even have their own acronym: CYP (children and young people). While ‘child-centred’ education and social work sounds great, it creates a mindset whereby children are deemed the best judges of what is best for them....<<<Read More>>>...