The concept of childhood is socially constructed and has shifted over time. Childhood has become in recent decades a more distinct phase of life with its own structures and norms, and young children’s time and physical movements have become accordingly more directed.²⁴ However, shifting social expectations and parenting choices are leading to more autonomy for young children. As such, more and more young children are finding the space to develop and express their own opinions, to set their own boundaries about their bodies,²⁵ to define their own identities²⁶ and to explore their physical²⁷ and digital worlds more freely. While many people see these shifts as representing positive developments, others perceive them as clashing with their beliefs, cultural and religious traditions, and preferences. This discord is leading to cultural and generational tensions about the role of children in society and the ongoing redefinition of childhood. Moreover, openly speaking one’s mind and moving unencumbered through the world are not universally accessible freedoms. Increasing income inequality, growing neighborhood and school segregation, ongoing disparities in access to enrichment opportunities and persistent racial biases are widening the gap between children who have relative freedom and those who do not.
» Children’s literature is increasingly taking a more activist tone, introducing even young children to current social issues.²⁸
» In 2019, California updated its Health Education Curriculum Framework, which provides guidance on teaching about a range of health issues from kindergarten through 12th grade. Its updated sex education suggestions, which include material on gender identity and consent, have caused controversy among some who say that those topics are not appropriate for young children.²⁹
» Utah passed a law that protects parents from being charged with neglect if their children are unsupervised in certain circumstances. However, some argue that the law is not sufficiently specific to protect poor parents and parents of color, who are more likely than more affluent and white parents to be reported and investigated for neglect.³⁰
» A 2016 study from the Yale Child Study Center found evidence that implicit bias affected how early learning educators disciplined students, with teachers showing “a tendency to more closely observe black students, and especially boys, when challenging behaviors are expected.”³¹
ARTIFACT FROM THE FUTURE
InviSafe: “Free” to Roam
Every day, more parents, caregivers and neighborhood groups are installing virtual perimeters. Equipped with facial recognition and distance measurement software, these sensors are securely anchored to the ground around the home or neighborhood. They give caregivers the peace of mind to carry out other tasks while children experience the joys of apparent independence. Some children have incorporated these digital fences into their games, while others have been finding ways to subvert the tracking, sometimes with the help of adults who believe that the fences offer only an illusion of freedom. Though the virtual perimeters were created for individual family use, some local police and school safety officers have started requesting access to the data that they collect. In the name of safety, these groups have also been installing digital fences in certain areas – primarily in low-income communities of color – leading those communities and their advocates to protest or seek bans on the use of the fences.
ARTIFACT FROM THE FUTURE
Children’s Councils: Civic Engagement in the Early Years
Established in 2020, the first children’s council was formed to promote civic engagement and awareness among five-to-eight-year-olds and to ensure that children’s needs and voices were considered in public decisions. Now, more than 500 councils are active; they are a legal subdivision of local governments, and public officials are required to integrate them into their policymaking processes. After receiving parental permission to participate, children engage with issues that are currently affecting their lives, such as education policy debates, as well as with issues that will affect them in the future, such as climate change. Libraries, schools and museums have created collections of resources to support children’s understanding of the issues. Despite the councils’ growth, disparities among families’, schools’ and neighborhoods’ capacity to support children’s participation have caused the councils to be less racially and economically diverse than hoped. In addition, some communities have blocked their creation, often with the support of their longtime public officials, because they do not think that young children should be involved in adult spheres or engage with controversial social issues.
ARTIFACT FROM THE FUTURE
Attention Money: Attention as Currency
Attention Money (AM) was established to create an incentive for young children to watch advertisements at a time when those have become largely obsolete. With AM, young children can control when to enable advertisements. If they do, they are rewarded with AM that they can spend on buying merchandise shown in, or related to, their favorite shows. AM founders claim that the system helps young children learn financial responsibility and can help parents understand how their children are spending time in digital environments. Detractors claim that AM is nothing more than predatory surveillance that tracks young children’s digital habits for commercial purposes. Since families that can afford to skip the ads have little incentive to use AM in place of traditional currencies, the advertising has disproportionally targeted lower-income children. In fact, a study reported that lower-income black and Hispanic children using the AM advertising system were being exposed to more junk food promotions than their white counterparts.
Issues to Watch
Recognize the unintended consequences of efforts to increase autonomy. The move to increase respect for young children’s voices and needs has the potential to reframe views on children’s role in society, positioning them as the full members of society that they are. However, if efforts aimed at increasing young children’s autonomy are not crafted with equity in mind, they risk further marginalizing some children. For example, calls to allow children to be “free range” often do not acknowledge that unsupervised children of color may be seen as a threat or as being neglected. Similarly, the admiration elicited by white children’s activity in civic spaces is not always extended to children of color, who may be treated as acting defiant when they engage. As discussion of how to offer appropriate levels of autonomy for young children continues, these disparities in their perception and treatment should be addressed.
How might stakeholders examine their values related to young children’s autonomy and address inequities in how different children are perceived?
Anticipate how over-monitoring could evolve. Both parents and children’s advocates have begun to question more seriously the overscheduling of children’s time and to recognize that the fear of children’s independent exploration may be misplaced. However, as young children begin to participate more in digital experiences and as those experiences evolve, continuous tracking of children’s online habits and movements could threaten their privacy and expose them to new types of over-monitoring by technology companies and by other commercial interests. Stakeholders should consider how much digital autonomy young children should have and how data created by children’s digital activity should be collected and used. Though regulations exist and though technology companies claim to be working to improve the safety and privacy of digital environments for children, those rules and efforts may not keep up with new tools and platforms – or with new norms for young children’s technology use.
How might stakeholders examine critically their preferences for children’s digital autonomy and prepare for emerging technological developments?
Develop frameworks for young children to engage in new spheres. As young children become more involved in decisions at the social, community and commercial levels, stakeholders will need to address questions of developmental appropriateness and find new ways to help children navigate those new terrains. These demands will require parents, caregivers, educators and children’s advocates to engage in new types of frank conversations with young children and to consider what decisions young children are developmentally equipped to make. As has been the case throughout history, such questions will have a multitude of answers. These answers will influence where and when children are expected to exercise voice and choice, as well as what structures adults put in place around children’s physical, digital and cognitive safety and freedom. The key will be to revisit these big questions about children’s agency and autonomy repeatedly while considering both necessary boundaries and opportunities to loosen restrictions.
How might stakeholders support young children in exercising age-appropriate voice and choice?
