I think that we as a society are failing our children. I believe that as parents many of us are doing a great job, but that as a society we are failing miserably.

Just about every day we hear stories about children who have been killed, raped, stolen, lost, abused, neglected, abandoned and otherwise mistreated. If you're like me, you hear these things and feel the emotions well up inside you. You feel a desire to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING to resolve the situation. Then carry on with your day.

I think that needs to change, and I'm going to list a few things I believe each of us can do to remedy the situation:

  1. Get sex off the TV - It doesn't matter what your personal religious, moral or ethical beliefs are. Children who are exposed to sex too early build a skewed vision of the world. If a child watches 4 soapies, a drama and an action programme in a day, and sees 11 types of openly sexual expression, they will build an image of a world where people use sex to express emotions. These days on TV, the natural thing for two people to do when they realise they love each other (or maybe just "like" each other) is to have sex. Even if they are married to someone else. Think of what this is teaching young children about expression of love, honesty and integrity. Many people aren't aware of this, but you can make a TV program, or even a full length movie, without having a sex scene, and have the film still be successful and enjoyable.
  2. Get sexual innuendo out of our adverts - The reasons for this are the same as the reasons given above. Only worse, because it's often not as obvious.
  3. Stop advertising junk to children - This may seem like a strange one, but if you think about it, what's the point of advertising to a 5 year old? Young children are incredibly impressionable and tend to believe pretty much anything you tell them. Advertising to children leads them to believe that they need items like toys, sweets, special shoes, etc... This can actually hurt a child's self esteem when they cannot get the toy, sweet, etc. for whatever reason. If you want to advertise children's product, advertise them to the parents.
  4. Make companies responsible for the effects of their products - This kind of goes along with the point above, but force companies to take responsibility for what they are selling. If you are pushing a product to kids, be prepared to be held responsible if it causes health problems. I once went to a Kellogg's "breakfast" where the nutritionist was recommending a sugar laden breakfast cereal. I asked why she didn't recommend something healthier (like muesli, all bran flakes, etc...). She responded "Because children wont eat that stuff". Sure. My daughter had been brought up eating all bran flakes, muesli, yoghurt and wheat bix- the healthiest foods we could find. And she likes them. Asks for them by name. Similarly, because she has been taught from birth that she WILL eat her veggies, and because she gets veggies, she eats them without a problem. Why aren't companies advertising healthy foods (and other products) to kids?
  5. Stop propagating ridiculous stereotypes - Usually the only women who look like Barbie are sick. It's really OK for guys to cry when they get sad. Poor people aren't all lazy, rich people aren't all happy. Et cetera. Lets make sure that our media stops portraying these falsehoods once and for all.
  6. Brainwash your child - This is a fun one, and can be seriously controversial. Children are so impressionable that simple exposure to an idea can imprint that idea on their minds forever. Too often people feel they can leave their children to learn about life, love and religion for themselves. This is a cop out. If you are not ACTIVELY teaching your child what you believe to be true, then whoever else IS teaching your child (TV, school teachers, your friends, their friends, friends parents, ...) will have their version of reality imprinted on your child's brain. However you look at it, someone is teaching (brainwashing) your child. If you don't want to be the one to do it, don't be surprised when you don't like the result.
  7. Children need discipline - Discipline doesn't necessarily mean punishment, but sometimes it does. People need rules in their lives in order to function properly in society. When they are young they need us to provide not only the rules, but also the guidance and training to adhere to those rules. As they get older they will slowly start setting their own rules. If we don't teach them the discipline necessary to observe rules, they will never be truly happy or safe.
  8. Children need to communicate - Children need protection from all sorts of things they don't see as dangerous (and these things change as they get older), but when they are young they need special protection from other people, and the only real way we can provide this protection is for us to create secure, trusting environments for them to live in, an environment where they feel they can discuss things that are important to them without fear of ridicule or worse, being ignored.
  9. Sexy is NOT good for children - Often parents feel the need to dress their children up look "sexy". Princeton's wordnet describes sexy as "marked by or tending to arouse sexual desire or interest". Why on earth would any sane parent want anyone looking at their child to become sexually aroused? Rather let children dress like, and look like, children. This is especially important for child models, who are not only at higher risk, but also tend to set expectations for other children.
  10. And finally, Be your child's parent, not their friend - Children need friends, and part of the roll of parent is definitely to be a friend to your child. But your child will have many friends over the course of his or her life. Normally, the only parents they will have is you. Be a parent. Chastise when necessary, praise when possible. Lead by example, set and enforce boundaries. Love unconditionally, and don't be afraid to make mistakes.
These are Jason's 10 quick fixes to getting society back on track. We always need to remember that the children growing up today are going to be the accountants, lawyers, engineers, policemen, judges, soldiers and other members of society when they grow up. Putting a little work into bringing them up properly will pay off in the short term, and will pay massive dividends in the long term.

One final thing to keep in mind is that we must not be afraid to let our children know when we have made mistakes. Our children will learn we are not infallible soon enough, teaching them that we recognise when we have messed up, and then showing them that we take responsibility for the problem, and work to fix it, will teach them a valuable lesson about dealing with their own mistakes.