Childhood and digital literacy in the digital age

Why should teachers care about digital literacy and childhood in the digital age?

This week’s reading focuses on the Sexualisation of Young People Review which can be accessed here: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100418065544/http://homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/Sexualisation-young-people2835.pdf?view=Binary

This text explores the sexualisation of young people and was undertaken by Dr Linda Papadopoulos who writes from the unique point of view of a mother and a psychologist. The scope of the review encompasses the sexualisation of all young people as well as how hyper-sexualisation and objectification of girls on the one hand, and hypermasculinisation of boys on the other, perpetuate and reinforce each other. The prevalence of this issue is demonstrated by the fact that the government decided to commission the investigation and reflects the popular perception that young people are increasingly being pressured into appearing sexually available.

Behind the social commentary and the headlines about inappropriate clothing and games for children, there are the real statistics, on teenage partner violence, sexual bullying and abuse that need to be acknowledged and addressed. This review is a step towards understanding how, as parents, as educators and as citizens we can take responsibility for creating safe and supportive environments for our children to understand and explore relationships and sexuality , and ensure that they do so in their own time and at their own pace.

The review suggests that teachers and all adults must acknowledge the role of new media in creating an ideal of sex, sexiness and sexualisation by which young girls are judged and judge themselves. It finds that over the past three decades there has been a dramatic increase in the use of sexualised imagery in advertising. While most of this imagery features women, there has also been a significant increase in the number of sexualised images of children (Tankard-Reist, 2010). Sexualised ideals of young, thin, beauty lead to ideals of bodily perfection that are difficult to attain and can be severely harmful particularly for adolescents (Coleman, 2008).

It acknowledges that sexualised images have featured in advertising and communications since mass media first emerged, yet what we are seeing now is an unprecedented rise in both the volume and the extent to which these images are imposing on everyday life. The teacher can potentially address these challenges by fostering an ethos in which children are admired for their abilities, talents and values. This is of great importance as regardless of a child’s level of sophistication, when it comes to internalising media and advertising messages, there is a large body of research from developmental psychologists that establishes that young children do not have the cognitive skills to cope with persuasive media messages. This links with my previous blog post, highlighting the need for children to be supported and educated on how to contextualise images such as those conveyed in adverts. Parents are also a powerful force in shaping their children’s attitudes to gender and sexuality and have a vital role to play in supporting their children to cope with and contextualise sexualised images and messages. A consideration for teachers, however is how to deal with their class’s differing backgrounds and the impact this has on a family’s stance and role in mediating sexualised media content in today’s diverse, multicultural UK context.

As noted by Ofcom (2012) and the Byron Review (2008), children are increasingly recognising the internet as a platform to socialise and share, yet this has the consequence of easy access to material that may not be age-appropriate. As an example of parental concerns raised by Prensky (2001) the review highlights a lack of ‘watershed’ on the internet, and occurrence of sexualised images and adverts appearing anywhere, even being sent indiscriminately to e-mail accounts and mobile phones. The review makes the strong statement that with the rise of the internet, it is not now a case of if a young person will be exposed to pornography but when. Core cognitive learning and developmental theories demonstrate that children learn vicariously from what they see, and that exposure to themes which a child is not developmentally ready to cope with can have a detrimental effect. For instance, evidence shows an increased normalisation of such themes, such as young teens posting sexually explicit images of themselves on social media. It is already recognised by that digitally native children are a generation of creators, yet this development suggests a need for clear boundaries to be encouraged by adults on what is appropriate content to share (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008).

References

Byron, T (2008) Safer Children in a Digital World – The Report of the Byron Review Nottingham:DCSF

Coleman, R. (2008). The Becoming of Bodies Girls, medai effects, and body image, Feminist Media Studies Volume 8 Issue 2.

Ofcom (2012) Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report Research Document

Palmer, S. (2007) Toxic Childhood - how the modern world is damaging our children and what we can do about it London: Orion Books. Ofcom.

Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives New York: Basic Books

Papadopoulos , L. (2010) Sexualisation of Young People Review Home Office

Prensky, M. (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II: Do They Really Think Differently?’ in On the Horizon 9 (6) (pdf on LN)

Tankard Reist, M., (2010) Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls. Spinifex Press.