Britain has an unhealthy relationship with its children

As a country, we have a very weird relationship with children. We have turned them into a depository for our better nature. All children are now considered innocence and perfection rolled into one. While we - adults and young adults (now known commonly as hoodies) - are the opposite: evil-minded and untrustworthy. Obviously, adults are all potentially dangerous. But we have started to consider them as if they are innately dangerous. For the record, children are usually not angels. They are, in fact, as cruel and manipulative as any adult. They're just cuter. Some modern psychology even sees them as far less moral than adults, their social brains having not been formed yet. [...]

We have paid a high price. More than a quarter of England's primary schools now do not have a single male teacher, leaving 4,587 school staffrooms populated solely by women. People in the street are extra cautious even coming into contact with children, for fear of some mad accusation being made against them. [...]

The UK now regularly appears at the bottom of Unicef tables for child well-being across industrialised countries. Paradoxically, we have made our children less safe.

source: Article 'Comment: Britain has an unhealthy relationship with its children' by Ian Dunt; www.politics.co.uk/interviews/children-and-family/comment-britain-has-an-unhealthy-relationship-with-its-children-$1298645.htm; politics.co.uk; 27 May 2009