Representations Of Children

Children are represented typically by the media as vulnerable and dependent on others, specifically their parents.

 However, recently, there has been numerous videos and pictures plastered over social media which happen to disagree with the typical representation. 

These videos consist of little girls wearing provocative clothing and tons of makeup, talking or singing about boys and only caring about what they look like. Prime examples of these would be Sophia Grace and Honey Boo Boo. There is also an advert where girls dressed as little princesses are swearing talking about gender stereotypes and how women are downgraded. Although I understand and agree with the message of the advert, to have little kids saying what they did appals me. This is done on purpose though. The producers or directors knew that young girls speaking like that is likely to get a large audience. These representations are dangerous because of the increase of young children using social networking. The girls watching these videos are more easily influenced due to their age and therefore may start acting like what they see. 

It is not only young girls that are represented poorly in the media and over social media. Boys are often represented as violent. Even the toys targeted at boys provoke a violent nature, e.g. Guns and swords. This may maintain the stereotype of boys are the dominant ideology and are more empowered, even just amongst children. Furthermore, boys are also recently being shown as "growing up too fast". Again, there are videos of young boys singing or talking about all the girls they get etc. This suggests that being a 'womaniser', 'galis' or 'player' is acceptable so long as you're a boy. This allows boys to grow up disrespectfully. This again is influenced upon them due  to how much access they have to social media now. 

Overall, I think that children are sometimes represented negatively in the media, or in a way that will provoke them to act in a certain nature as they are growing up. However, I do not disagree that children are still represented as pure, innocent and sweet. I do see countless amounts of videos and pictures everywhere where children are acting incredibly adorable. But, although this may be correct, we all know that the children acting in the opposite way, perhaps rebelliously, are more likely to gain a larger audience, therefore it is what we may hear about or see more of.