Joanna Yeates has been murdered. Nobody knows for sure who did it.
A girl ages 14 was raped at 4pm on the way back from school a couple of months ago.
Another girl was raped in the summer of 2009.
And as a result parents are getting more paranoid that ever. Why? Because several things have happened that have pushed parents to paranoia about the safety of their children. Everyone wants children to be safe, but it is as safe as it was a decade ago. Even if we molly-coddle the children and not let them go out by themselves we will still get people who are raped and murdered because you cant protect everyone. Joanna Yeates was a adult. An adult will not let themselves be molly-coddled. Hell, teenagers wont let themselves be molly-coddled. So there is no way that there will be a complete end of rape etc. There has been no increase or decrease of rape and murder but media coverage has increased the hype. Sure, everyone wants the murderer of Joanna Yeates to be caught. Everyone wants the rapist who raped the girl, 14, to be caught. But by the media increasing the hype means that parents will not give their children the much needed independence that is needed in later life. Otherwise they will be fully reliant on their parents, spouses, partners etc. and we will leave the future generations to be dependants. Do we really want that? The large majority of answers would be no. Why? Because we want the children and teenagers of today to be the independent strong men and women of tomorrow. And speaking as a young teenage girl, I know that we want to have a good life too. And we wont learn through mistakes if you treat us like babies.
There was a recent study done on a family through three generations. They all lived in the same place but the company who did the study wanted to know how far each male was allowed to roam in miles.
The grandfather was allowed to go pretty much anywhere, about 20/30 miles from the house.
The dad was allowed to go about 5-8 miles around the house.
The boy was only allowed to go down the street.
Surely this shows how much more protective we have become since those days when young people were allowed to roam free.
Parents are keeping their children in. They are making sure they are safe from all the rapists, murderers etc who frequently walk around doing at will and wherever. But that does not happen all day everyday as much as parents think. We keep children inside to stop them from getting hurt from brambles etc or sick through another person but then they are just soft. And their immune systems are bad, so the slightest cold or cough they catch when they finally have enough of the forced house-arrest and go out By Themselves- shock, horror!- will completely incapacitate them because they havent had all of the normal coughs and cold and havent built up a strong immune system.
The children of tomorrow will grow soft and dependant unless you adults give us the independence we need!
So I say Do keep them safe, Do keep them happy. But also do keep them independant.
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