Ageism

Laws restricting youth

Anti-youth policies both infantilize and criminalize minors, making them easy prey for the criminal system. Youthful relationships involving small age differences are often persecuted - leading to a lifelong criminal record, or worse - if the country has a sex-offender's register. Some of these crimes relate to child pornography, and our article on research into that subject quotes some examples of child producers.

Further, the effect of these laws is very often discriminatory and misogynistic - meaning that teenage girls who get pregnant do not have access to healthcare without criminalizing their boyfriends. This was a major reason for Peru reducing the age of consent to 14 in 2007.

Ageism in the broader sense

Ageism is easily identifiable in curfew laws and other anti-youth policies. The idea of adolescence as a discreet life phase is often provided as justification, along with the pseudoscientific information scheme of "teen brain" literature and attempts to raise the age of majority to 25 or beyond.

Wikipedia series

Wikipedia seems to be somewhat confused as to what ageism against young people might entail, with multiple articles each discussing separate theoretical constructs, some of which appear to have been completely usurped by statist language, discourse and distraction narratives:

• Ephebiphobia
• Paternalism
• Fear of children
• Adultcentrism
• Adultism
• Youth activism
• Youth empowerment
• Youth voice
• Ageism
• Intergenerational equity
• Youth rights

Examples of criminalization

See also: Ethical Treatment For All Youth.

• Juvenile sex offenders marked for life (2008)

"They were neighbors, aged 13 and 10, who played together in a toy fort at the older boy's home. But one summer afternoon, the teen began talking about masturbation, then performed oral sex on the younger boy. He said they should do it again the next day. And they did [...] Since 1997, more than 3,500 children in the state -- some as young as 10, though on average about 14 -- have been charged and convicted as felony sex offenders, a mark that remains on their records forever, barring them from careers in medicine, teaching or a host of other professions that serve the vulnerable. It also frightens many into under-the-radar housing arrangements to avoid landlords who require background checks [...] Now a student at the University of Washington, Tyler has a girlfriend and tries to live as normally as possible. But the childhood record has scuttled his hopes of becoming a doctor and, by alienating him from peers who might ask too many questions, paralyzed much of his social development."

• Teen couple who photo'd own sex acts prosecuted for child porn (2007)

"Each [16 and 17] was charged with producing, directing or promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of a child. Based on the contents of his e-mail account, Jeremy was charged with an extra count of possession of child pornography." [...] Cmt: "It's a strange anomaly. They're charged for making child pornography and tried as adults. However, the law calls the pictures they produced child pornography, so they should be trying them as minors. Anything less than this is hypocrisy."

• Two Teen Girls Face Child Porn Charges ... For Their Own Pictures (2006)

"Providence, RI -- Two teenage girls face child pornography charges after posting sexually explicit photographs of themselves on the Internet. The pornographic pictures of Elizabeth Muller, 19, of North Smithfield, and an unidentified 16-year-old Lincoln girl were discovered on MySpace.com, a social networking Web site, said a spokesman for the attorney general's office."

• Teen charged for sending nude phone photos (2008), See also

"NEWARK, Ohio - Police in Newark, Ohio, have arrested a 15-year-old girl on juvenile child pornography charges for allegedly sending nude cell phone photos of herself to classmates. The girl was arrested Friday and held over the weekend. Her defense filed denials in court Monday."

• High Schoolers Accused Of Sending Naked Pictures To Each Other (2009)

"Three teenage girls who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves, and three male classmates in a Greensburg Salem High School who received them, are charged with child pornography. Police said the girls are 14 or 15, and the boys charged with receiving the photos are 16 or 17. [...] "It was a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude," said Capt. George Seranko of the Greensburg Police Department. Police said school officials learned of the photos in October. That's when a student was seen using a cell phone during school hours, which violates school rules. The phone was seized, and the photos were found on it, police said. When police investigated, other phones with more pictures were seized. "Taking nude pictures of yourself, nothing good can come out of it," said Seranko."

• Carpentier, M., Silovsky, J. and Chaffin, J. (2006). "Randomized trial of treatment for children with sexual behavior problems: Ten-year follow-up," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74 , pp. 482-488.

"For example, some state child welfare systems have promulgated special tracking systems for registering, segregating, and handling children identified as having SBP [sexual behaviour problems]. Children with SBP may be segregated within facilities and limited to specialized SBP units. Because preadolescent children as young as 9 years old or occasionally younger are adjudicated as delinquent for sex crimes, some states include these children on lifetime public sex offender registries and Internet sites, and federal legislation has been proposed and passed in the U.S. House of Representatives that would mandate including all adjudicated children with SBP on lifetime public Internet sex offender registries (Children's Safety Act, 2005).

See also

• SOR problems - The adding of children to public registries.
• Adolescence
• Research: Cognitive ability
• Youth liberation movement

External links

• The Criminalization of Youth - NAMBLA