Do children know too much?

[Wilson]

Hey all, I was reading through the something you'll never understand thread, and the comment Chocobo made got me thinking....

I'll never understand why has the world gone so downhill? There was a little boy in Kindergarten on my bus that had a porn magazine, and knew exactly what it was, and the kids around him knew what it was, including girls. Why? I think I'll raise my children to never know what a penis is if they're girls until they're a freshman. Even if I must homeschool them.

Personally, I agree completely. And people think children who are better taught about these things (drugs, sex, etc) are more likely to be safe? I say just teach them to stay away from those things! Obviously in time they'll find out about those things and possibly do them, but there's no need to lead them to it.

Hopefully this doesn't just start a flame war or anything but I think it's a good topic, so my question is are today's children taught too much, too soon, about the adult world?

[Anime Forum]

It all depends on the parent/guardian/etc, usually different types of guardians either like to teach them about this stuff early, or let them learn on there own. Some kids learn on there own, from a parent/ friends/ etc. Some kids know too much, while others do not.

[tokyoNH]

As a 6th grade school teacher, I have learned that knowledge is power. I find that there is an awareness of these things in 6th grade - they have an open exposure to good/bad/ugly and are learning to deal with these things.

[aishiteru333]

Children today know too much. My sisters, for example, oh gosh you don't even want to know those things...
Not knowing enough can lead to problems but knowing too much can also lead to more problems...

I know 'cause that's my case here...

[Ollie]

In this case, "children" is too broad a word. How old is someone before he is no longer a child? And how young of a child does he have to be before he's too young to understand anything at all?

IMHO, the earlier you teach your children about drugs, sex, and rock and roll, the better. They'll be a little wiser about how to approach these subjects later since they won't be totally alien to them, plus parents tend to have better relationships with their kids if approached in an open way. (And by this I DON'T mean lecturing children every day about the horrors of pre-marital sex and recreational drug use, because after being talked at about the same thing over and over you eventually tune it out. I certainly have.)

[Daenerys]

Yes, children know too much.

Somehow my neice found out how to turn the computer on and search for porn.

It wasn't a nice thing to walk in on at 7am.

[Jimbow]

well, dunno if I'm old enough to be talking about children.

but I do see that when I was a child and a someone said a word like sex, my whole class would go like blegh or laughs, because we didn't really know what it was...

nowadays I see a lot of children talking about it, my nephew told me something about a friend of him watching porn (my nephew is 12) and well,, I dunno if it's true but still only getting ideas like that is wrong at that age if you ask me ><

so yeah I do think they know too much...

[Amray The II]

I generally and personally think that this generation of children are a lot smarter than the recent years past. There are some really, really bright young children on this world today, and their knowledge even surpasses that of most middle-aged men and woman, and especially this present times adolescents.

I have even met children smarter than I...I am not sure if that is literal, nonetheless they were extremely intelligent.

[Diocletian]

I met a little boy once who knew more about sex then me.I couldn't help, but laugh about how he got to feel a girl, and he was eight.Yes, they do.I say hit 'em with a bat until they pass out and watch Johnny Test to destroy their brain cells.

[Eris]

Nah. Growing up in a sexually repressed family does more harm than knowing what sex is. I saw pr0n in kindergarten as well. I did not understand it, all I saw was naked people in strange positions.

[drm0ney]

In this case, "children" is too broad a word. How old is someone before he is no longer a child? And how young of a child does he have to be before he's too young to understand anything at all?

IMHO, the earlier you teach your children about drugs, sex, and rock and roll, the better. They'll be a little wiser about how to approach these subjects later since they won't be totally alien to them, plus parents tend to have better relationships with their kids if approached in an open way. (And by this I DON'T mean lecturing children every day about the horrors of pre-marital sex and recreational drug use, because after being talked at about the same thing over and over you eventually tune it out. I certainly have.)

I agree with Ollie. Just because you wait and hide things from kids doesn't mean when you tell them they'll be "oh thank you for protecting me and sheilding me from the dangers of the world! Now that I'm 14 and my hormones are driving me up the wall and you have now introduced me to the ideas of the world I'd never dream of doing them." >.> ok small rant there. I think just being honest with your kids. Tell them what there is when it comes to sex and drugs, tell them what can happen, and then go from there. And don't make it some big long boring talk of doom. Get the basics out there and then have smaller talks as you feel they're needed.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

Kid's don't know too much. Penises and Vaginas are mundane. Almost everyone has one or the other, if not both. Now when children start reading the Necronomicon and muttering about the unfathomable mountains of madness then you have a problem.

[Lady Edani]

i think kids know too much. i been told some things that my friends sisters and brothers know....what happened? can't the parents atlest TRY to shied there kids from these things. i knew ALOT more then i should have when i was little.

[Archaic Devices]

Eh. Most kids in my school are stupid and try to be popular. I must go to the worst school in the state >.> Anyway I think its good that kids know a lot of stuff. But when it comes to some things, I think they're better off not knowing it.

[Wilson]

I understand that whether you teach a child about these things or not, they will find out. I grew up in a very strict house, but I still knew allot about what was going on at a very young age through the people around me.

My point is that just because we know that a child will hear about all these things and eventually be presented with them, we should not have given them an "it's ok, I'll only do a little" mentality. I'm sure every addict started off only using recreationally. Too much "knowledge" and you'll think you're too smart to get caught like everybody else. To me, knowledge is experience, if you do this stuff and learn from it, then you truly KNOW what they are. If you don't even bother doing them, "Ignorance is bliss". You're more likely to want to do the practical if you know the theory.

Why on earth does a 13 year old need to know about sex anyway? If they weren't having it crammed into their brains daily, they may go a few more years before it really starts to mean anything to them. By then, it's pretty certain that they'll have already figured it all out anyway.

[Miss Moonlight]

I'd like my child to know what a penis is, at the right and mature age.

It is curiousity that leads to "finding out" through sex and other means. In my opinion, kids just don't know enough. This is why kids are having sex and a young age and why small kids also have porn magazines. Someone dropped the ball in their development, I think.

[Haoie]

Anything beats ignorance, you know.

[DynastyxFell]

Though I think five is a bit too young to be reading a porn magazine, and understanding what's happening, and that eight is also a bit young to actually be feeling a girl up, I do think its better for kids to find out about sex (from a reliable, parent-like source, hopefully) at a younger age. Around eight years old. They don't have to know everything right away, but I don't think it does children any good to be protected from it, after a certain age. After age ten, I really think kids should know about it. Nowadays especially, eleven, twelve, thirteen is too old to be just finding out/learning about sex.

[Kawairashii hikari]

Yes.
I mean I knew about sex when I was young... but you know not everything about it. Little kids today (I'm talking about 7, 8, 9, 10 yr olds) can tell you everything about it, which I find horribly disgusting and sad. When I was that age all I knew is that sex was how you had a baby. Not all the positiions and etc., etc... I mean, what do their parents do while they're learning about all this stuff? I mean cause they're obviously not watching them as closely as they should be. And that's why kids at younger ages are having sex, because they're learning about it, parents aren't really thinking that they have to worry about them right now, and they're curiousity gets the best of them and since parents aren't watching they go out and do it.

[Ayako_Star]

When you say children, I hope you mean from ages 3-at least 9.

This age group, in the U.S., knows too much nowadays. Well, knowing is one thing, but abusing this knoledge is another. For example, a 5yr old cursing out his grandparents in a busy street or 8yr olds on crack. I think their being exposed to things too easily in society. Either that, or they have older siblings and parents that teach them things that should be left for later...

-srry if i'm ranting

[Saint Seiya]

thank god my parents were very open minded, i knew about cigars, bad words and sex since i was little.