This essay will therefore attempt to assess the changes in the status of childhood. This can be done by comparing the western idea of childhood today with the childhood in the past and in other societies.

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Examining Childhood 

a) A child-centered society is one that puts the welfare of children first in terms of priority. For example, parents put the needs of their children first. Children these days have mobile phones, lap tops, iPods, etc.

b) One way in which childhood and adulthood is ‘becoming blurred’ is through differences in dress. Another way in which childhood and adulthood is ‘becoming blurred’ is through the leisure activities, children and adults spend their leisure time differently.

c) - Children’s movements in industrial societies such as Britain are highly regulated. There is increasingly close surveillance over children in public spaces such as shopping centres.

- Adults in modern society control children’s daily routines, including the times when they get up, go school, come home, go out, eat, watch television, etc.

- Adults exercise enormous control over children’s bodies, including how they sit, walk and run, what they wear and their hairstyles.

Essay

Sociologists claim that childhood is a social construction; something that is created and defined by society. This essay will therefore attempt to assess the changes in the status of childhood. This can be done by comparing the western idea of childhood today with the childhood in the past and in other societies.

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Aries (1960) believed childhood is a concept developed with the industrial age with the children getting education, not used as child labour. He also believes that in the middle ages the idea of childhood ‘did not exist’. Children were not seen as having different needs from adults, as long as they had passed the stage of physical dependency. Children were in fact ‘mini adults’, with the same rights, duties and skills as adults. For example, the law often made no distinction between adults and children and therefore often faced with the same severe punishments as those given to adults. ...

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