> Children and Parenting > Emotional and Mental Health

Pre-teens have always enjoyed dressing up in Mommy’s clothes, but today’s young girls age eight to 12 years want their own sexy wardrobe. Despite increased awareness of child exploitation, parents may be complicit in the widespread sexualization of their children, leaving them vulnerable to abuse, depression, and eating disorders.

A toy box full of carnal knowledge–Bling Bling Barbies and Bratz dolls dressed in fishnet stockings are only two examples–is helping to create a generation of children defined and valued according to their sexual appeal. Sadly, many parents are seemingly oblivious to the potentially frightening consequences.

The disturbing phenomenon of the sexualization of children has been steadily growing since the sexual revolution of the 1970s. Children, and their parents, are being sold the illusion that kids are capable of safely navigating the sexual world of grown-ups.

“This results in an early sexualization of children before they can process what sexuality is and long before they have a chance to discover and explore their own sexuality,” say the experts at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in a their Kids’ Health newsletter.

Today’s children are bombarded with messages in the advertising and entertainment industries–even the squeaky clean ones such as Disney–linking physical beauty and sexual attractiveness with happiness.

That message is fed through role models that are impossibly thin, highly sexualized, and often totally messed up. Pre-teens see idols such as Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, themselves products of pre-pubescent sexualization, and want the same fantasy lifestyle.

Hot but Unhealthy

Introducing kids to a world of sex, long before a child can process what sexuality even is, can be harmful to emotional development, says the American Psychological Association (APA), because children are not equipped psychologically to interpret the sometimes abnormal sexual behaviour of their favourite pop stars. The early exposure can cause confusion and trigger feelings of inadequacy and prompt children to explore sexual behaviours prematurely.

The APA’s recent Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls studied the content and effects of advertising in television, movies, music videos and lyrics, magazines, video games, and the Internet. Released in 2007, the widely published results found that the negative consequences of sexualizing young girls are “very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls’ healthy development.”

Australian professor Marika Tiggemann has conducted extensive research on the effects of early sexualization, finding the impacts to be overwhelming on a girl’s self-esteem, including body dissatisfaction and shame, increased vulnerability to eating disorders, and a preoccupation with how her body looks rather than how it performs. According to Tiggemann’s findings, the resulting low self-image often encourages a girl to withdraw from physical activity even though it helps to maintain positive mood and cardiovascular health.

Too Much Too Soon

Perhaps the most devastating and terrifying consequence of sexualizing kids is a concern that it may encourage unwanted advances from sexual predators.

“The sexualization of girls may not only reflect sexist attitudes, a societal tolerance of sexual violence, and the exploitation of girls and women, but may also contribute to these phenomena,” the APA report states.

Child advocates have argued that the increased sexualization of children in the media encourages molesters to rationalize–and perhaps act on–their feelings of attraction to pre-pubescent children, according to Lyba Spring, a long-time sexual health promoter with Toronto Public Health.

“Soft porn images are regularly used in advertising, which also normalizes the behaviour,” she says.

According to the Ontario Network of Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centres, the shame and fear associated with child sexual abuse makes it largely a hidden crime. Although most experts believe the numbers are alarming, it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of people who are sexually abused at some time during their childhood. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that more than 88,000 children were confirmed victims of sexual abuse in the United States during 2002. By contrast, there is no current Canadian research–studies have not been conducted on the prevalence of violence against women and children since the mid-1990s.

Anne Marie Aikins founded a rape crisis centre following a brutal sexual assault in 1981 and went on to have four books published, including one for pre-teens on dealing with racism.

Source: alive #311, September 2008