Future of childhood

• Disappearance of childhood


  Postman (1994) argues childhood is disappearing at a dazzling speed, as there's a trend towards children having the same rights as adults, there being less transitional unsupervised children's games, child/adult clothes becoming similar and even children committing adult crimes like murder
• Emergence and disappearance of childhood

  Comes from the rise/fall of print culture and television culture replacing it
• Information hierarchy adults/children


  Became separate with the rise of literacy in 19 century as printed word children can't read gave adults 'secrets' about money, violence, sex, illness, etc. However TV blurs distinction between childhood/adulthood as you don't need to read to access the info the boundary is broken down, both adult authority and child innocence are lessened
• Rise of print culture


  Leads to information hierarchy between adults and children
• Rise of TV culture


  Blurs distinction between childhood and adulthood
• Childhood in postmodernity


  Jenks (2005) doesn't believe childhood is disappearing, just that it's changing. He also believes childhood was a creation of modern society
• Modern/20 century childhood


  Concerned with futurity- childhood is preparation for becoming a productive adult in the future. This is achieved by nurturing, protecting and controlling a vulnerable child with a child-centred family and the education system
• Postmodern childhood


  Adult's relationships go from stable to fast-paced and unstable-like an increase in divorce. This will lead to children being supervised even more as adults will focus on their children as the one thing in their lives that is still certain. Children will be seen as more vulnerable than before and will be constantly protected from the smallest risks of danger/child abuse