Children at risk: Increasing Exposure of Children to Negative Teenage Behaviour.

We concluded from the interview that there has been a generational mindset shift in recent years and children are increasingly exposed to negative teenage behaviour, thereby proving that the trend exists in Singapore. The reasons behind the trend are that children are emulating and imitating teenagers indiscriminately as they are not psychologically mature enough to distinguish between right and wrong, reality and fantasy; their nature compels them to mimic what they see or hear, and hurt instinct. Her suggestion to help to rectify the trend is parental guidance as it would help eliminate those misconceptions and misbehaviour. We then enquired about the impacts of the trend. She said that the repercussions are early sexualisation and sexual dysfunction, high divorce rates, and a shift of culture and societal values.

3.2 Parents’ Survey

                

Fig. 1 Results of parent’s survey

Since a large majority of the 30 parents we had surveyed have observed that their children use profanities regularly (70%), wear skimpy and “punkish” clothing (60%) and behave differently from children in the past (70%), we can safely assert that the present generation of children in Singapore have been influenced by the appeal of teenage lifestyles that were not as strong in the past.

To find out how parents feel about the early maturing of children, we conducted a survey for 30 parents (aged 30-55 years old) of children at Methodist Childcare Centre. Parents, having more opportunities to observe their children, will be a good source of information about how children have been affected by exposure to television programmes, toys and apparel.

The results show that the percentage of high skepticism level is lower than expected for toys (8% for Bratz and 11% for My Scene). This is probably due to the wide variety of choices that we have provided in the survey, therefore parents chose the choices that they feel more adversely affected their children. It shows that parents are typically more apathetic about the toys their children play with, hence the effects of toys on children might often go unnoticed.  

Although the negative impacts of toys are not apparent, they are nonetheless crucial, as Ms. Agnes Koh has mentioned that toys can influence children mentally. As parents are unaware of toys’ adverse impacts, the trend will not change. Hence ignorance of parents on this issue can be tackled in our plans to alleviate the trend.

3.3 Children’s Observations

The group observed children’s behaviour, such as the amount of profanities and type and frequency of physical force used by children, and also the types of clothes young girls wear, so as to obtain first-hand information from the children themselves about how the trend has influenced the children.

It was discovered almost 50% of the girls observed wore miniskirts and spaghetti straps. In a class of 24, the number of times profanities was used in one hour amounted to 28 times. This shows that children are increasingly exposed to profanities. In the same class, the children pushed and kicked one another eight times in one hour to achieve their objectives.

Also, we noted that nothing much was actually done to correct them. Moreover, children are not mature enough to differentiate right from wrong. Thus, such negative teenage practices are further propagated amongst children, resulting in the trend to be more apparent.

3.4 Children’s Interview

In conclusion, children nowadays define beauty and coolness in a teenage manner. Hence their mindsets have changed, which is a consequence of exposure to negative aspects of teenage lifestyles.

3.5 Observations of Children Apparel and Toys

We carried out our observations at Kingkow (for apparel) and Toys ‘R’ Us (for toys) located at Forum, Orchard Road, reason being Forum has wide variety of children products, thus many parents choose to patronise the stores there.

After spending one hour in Kingkow to observe the sales of apparel, we noted that children need not pester their parents to purchase halters or miniskirts for them as the parents seemed willing to do so. The cashier said that the sales of halters, miniskirts and baggy pants have gone up from 10% to 50%, sharing the market with traditional apparel like T-shirts. Hence we conclude that parents are seeing such teenage fashion as a normal and acceptable style for children, this would further facilitate the exposing of children to negative teenage behaviour.

Next, we spent another hour in Toys ‘R’ Us so as to observe the market of Bratz dolls. Bratz was placed under the “Girls’ Favourites” section while Barbie was not. Although Barbie has a greater variety than Bratz, more children spend longer period of time looking at Bratz. Furthermore, some parents were also choosing Bratz to buy for their child. Thus, we assert that parents today believe that such dolls are suitable for their children.

Chapter 4: Summary of Impacts

Fig 7. Summary of impacts

Chapter 5: Predicting the development of the trend in 10 years time

There are three possible outcomes of the development of the trend.

After thorough evaluation of primary and secondary information gathered, it is clear that the exposure of children to negative teenage behaviour will follow an increasing trend (blue). That is because of the supply-demand theory we had stated in the literature review. We had evaluated that with low birth rates and high economic growth in Singapore, parents will have more time and money to indulge their children. This leads to the increased popularity and production of teenage products catering to children.

Goods produced in greater quantities include dolls similar to Bratz. There will be more television programmes with teenagers as lead actors, and books and CDs about and written by youth. The next children's fashion scene may compose largely of teenage apparel and such clothes will get more mass-produced.

Chapter 6: Our Plans

Fig 10. Diagrammatic representation of our plans.

Firstly, we suggest that one should approach parental group in Singapore (e.g. Singapore Planned Parenthood Association) as they have a greater voice, to convince toys’ retailers in Singapore to tag the Bratz with a sign saying: “WARNING: Parent Advisory Required”, thus making it clear to their customers. However companies maybe unwilling to follow our plans as it might affect their sales. To get around talking to the companies, the parental group can approach the Minister of Home Affairs to push for a bill.

Parents learn the importance of controlling what television programmes their children watch, what they wear and also what toys they play with via parenting courses and parenting books. We confirmed with twenty parents that none of the parenting courses or books discuss the negative influence of teenage behaviour on children. Hence, parenting courses and parenting books should include more information on this trend. This will allow parents to realise that toys, apparel and media can actually have significant negative influence on children, which can be greatly reduced when parents supervise them so that they will know what to learn and what not to learn from. To do this, groups such as the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association can propose to companies involved in organizing parenting courses and publishing parenting books to include information on the negative influence of teenage behaviour on children. Financial assistance to hold these parenting courses or to publish these parenting books can be obtained from the MCDS (Ministry of Community Development and Sports).

With more working parents, childcare centres are becoming a necessity for parents, and are where most children will spend most of their time. If these centres are properly educated about the trend then most children will be receiving the proper guidance during their formative years. This will reduce the negative influence of teenage behaviour on children due to lack of effective guidance.

Public parent support groups such as the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association, as well as parent support groups in schools can approach the principals of childcare centres to educate them about the seriousness of the situation so that they can highlight the importance of reducing this negative influence on children. Teachers can then monitor the children’s behaviour by methods such as correcting their wrong concepts and reprimanding them if they use profanities.

To attract the attention of parents who fail to realise the existence of this problem, we have decided to come up with a radio advertisement to highlight the crux of the matter in a light-hearted manner. This will help to increase parental awareness to the issue so that they can be more receptive to our ideas.

The advertisement consists of a short song and an advisory.

The lyrics are as follows: (To the tune of “We are Singapore”)

Fig 10. Lyrics of the song

This will be followed by a voice announcing “Children are ever-increasingly being exposed to violence and sexuality? As parents, you can play a part. For more information, contact Singapore planned parenthood association at .”

An expert well-trusted by parents, such as Dr. Jennifer Lee, could also be convinced to discuss about the effects of the teenage concept gaining in popularity amongst young children today, on public channels like Channel News Asia. Increased discussion over how increased exposure of children to negative teenage behaviour promotes violence, the use of profanities and early sexualisation of children today will result in greater awareness of the trend amongst parents.

Chapter 7: Conclusion

All in all, we are confident that we have identified a trend that has been changing over the past few years, and that with our thought-out plan, we will be able to correct this situation in due time.

Chapter 8: Bibliography

The group would like to thank:

        Mrs Tan Ai Chin, our supervising tutor, for patiently giving us constant feedback on how to improve, for being so supportive and for her wonderful guidance, without whom we certainly would not have come thus far.

        Miss Agnes Koh, for taking time off to help us with our expert interview.

  Kingkow and Toys R’ us at Forum Shopping Mall, for allowing us to take photographs at their shops and observe sales for an hour.

        The principals of Kinderland and Methodist Childcare centre, for allowing us to interview their pupils.

        The many parents who had helped us with our investigation by filling up our surveys.

        The many children who had helped us with our investigation by answering our interview questions.

         Mr Choe Kee Cheng, for helping us decide on the title of our project.

 All the other people who had contributed in this project in one way or another.

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