S Wagg (1992) identifies two broad sociological views on adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable.
The Conventional view is favoured by adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable and New Right sociologists sees children as passive adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable beings needing the protection of adults from themselves and from dangers within society e.g. bad parenting, violence in the media, abuse.
The Social Construction view is favoured by adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable. Such a view sees childhood as a social invention or adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable. Childhood is not seen as a adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable biological state. Instead the experience of childhood differs widely through history and across cultures. The experience of childhood also differs across social classes and adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable groups.

Philippe Aries
Aries suggested that childhood is a adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable construct which has only existed in Western culture for the last 300 years. He claimed that in medieval society the child took on the role of the adult as soon as it was adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable able to do so. Childhood and adolescence are therefore not adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable states they are social constructs.
Aries traced the social construction of childhood to the Industrial adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable emerging with the social construction of the "housewife" role. Children increasingly became to be seen as being in need of the specialist care and adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable of the mother. Aries refers to this as "the cult of the child" and contrasts it to earlier cultures which simply saw children as "little adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable"

The Century of the Child or the Death of Childhood?
In 1900 Ellen Key published a book called the "Century of the Child". In it she argued that childhood would become a time of protected adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable with the abolition of child labour, free education, better medicine and so lower infant mortality, higher standards of living and better and more effective adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable.
In the latter part of the Twentieth century such optimism was in decline and many sociologists were talking in terms of the "adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable of childhood" as a protected period of innocence.
Neil Postman in his 1994 book "The Disappearance of Childhood" argued that children were being exposed repeatedly to "adult concerns" (sex, adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable and consumption) through the media, film and television. Exposure to such concerns it was argued broke down what was adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable about being a child and in fact contributed to creating vicious and adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable young people. Postman concluded that it was now difficult to distinguish between children and adults in terms of their values and adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable. Just like adults children were developing high adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable rates, drug and alcohol problems, and an obsessive interest in matters sexual.



The Collapse of Adult Authority
Cunningham suggests there has been a shift in the balance of power from adult to adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable. He lays the blame for this on growing parental affluence being passed on to children in the form of allowances and adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable money and on the growing tendency for parents to "give in" to their children adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable as well as financially. This manifested itself most obviously in a growing reluctance to adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable children or even say no to them. Cunningham concludes that whilst the 20th century started with a vision of children as powerless dependents, it has ended with the decline of parental adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable and children's successful demands for access to the adult world earlier. This despite the fact that children remain economically adultsauthoritybehavioursbiologicalchildchildhoodconstructcrimedeathdependentdisciplineemotionallyethnicfunctionalistsinnocenceinteractionistsnurturingparentingphysicallypocketRevolutionselfishsocialspecialuniversalviolencevulnerable for even longer - little wonder Cunningham argues that adolescence is a time of great stress and conflict between children and parents.


Group Discussion Points
Is there a right way to bring up children?
Is childhood still a period of protected innocence?
Is childhood really a social construct?
Do children have too many rights these days?