For our children’s sake — Ravinder Singh
SEPT 23 — There go the experts again. This time, the medical experts are telling us that the phenomena of the rise in young girls having sex, getting pregnant and becoming mothers as young as the age of 12 is because nature is firing up their sex hormones into action much earlier than decades ago.
This is a very simplistic answer, nothing more than a perception, actually. Hormones, if not interfered with by external factors, would not get fired up so early on their own. We do not see this happening in other mammals as their young do not learn about sex the way human children are “learning” about it to day.
Children learn from the environment in which they live. They learn from the elders around them; from the values of the society within their daily experience; from schools.
Sex-related print, electronic and motion film material are big money makers these days. In the name of free market, of freedom of expression, of art, etc. the world is inundated with what used to be termed ‘yellow culture’ in the 50’s and 60’s. This has generated more business and money in pregnancy prevention drugs and devices industries.
This world does not consist of ADULTS ONLY. Approximately 30 per cent of our population is below the age of 15. The adult world seems to have forgotten this. Thus, things that societies of the past considered taboo for children and therefore did not want them to know about, let alone practise, are now freely available to children because there is money to be made by some people from doing so.
Children, even adults sometimes, learn by imitation. So, when they are exposed to so much information daily, and all sorts of information, about sex, are they to be blamed for wanting to imitate what they see all around them?
Today’s world is money driven, as if nothing else matters. It is this greed for money that makes available to children things that are not fit for them. When otherwise innocent children begin imitating and experimenting with what they have been “taught”, little knowing the consequences of their actions, they are the ones on whom tables are turned. How cruel the adult world is towards children!
One can’t have the best of both worlds. If you expose children to smut from an early age, do not expect them to grow up being angels. The adult world is the direct cause of the children’s social behaviour, whether good or bad.
We are failing our children. We are being cruel to them by being unconcerned about their all round development. They need more than just food, clothing and shelter. Our greed has blinded us to the fact that we cannot tell children “do what I tell you and don’t do what you see me doing”!
Sight, according to educationists and educational psychologists is the most powerful of our senses. About 80 per cent of all that a person learns is learnt through this sense. So, children must not be blamed for imitating what they see, whether in print, motion films or real life.
But is the money-driven world prepared to make a sacrifice for the sake of its children?
* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insider.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
