Innocence of Children Being Taken Away…
When you think of a child you imagine a little girl or boy playing at the playground, going to school and having no responsibilities, their minds are so innocent and pure. This typical child we imagine is not always the case and this childhood a child should experience is being taken away from them. Throughout history children have been forced into sex trades, child labour, marriage and have been abandoned by their families forcing them to provide for themselves. These unspeakable acts by society demonstrate how the innocence of children is being taken away and they have no say in what happens to them, their voices do not matter. Children are
constantly being taken advantage of around the world, and us society and government just turns
a blind eye.
A huge problem many children face around the world is forced marriage. When you look at these little girls you imagine they are going to their first communion with their fathers right? They are so little and innocent. These little girls are so clueless as to what's happening to them. The looks on their faces are so confused, asking “ What's going on? Where am I going?”. These little girls
have no idea they are about to be forced into marriage to men 3 times their age. This image and the reaction of these little girls strongly portrays the way society is taking away these children’s innocent lives, they are taking advantage of them and forcing them into marriage without any say and the most horrible thing about it is that often government and society does nothing about it. In Iraq there is a new law being considered allowing men to marry girls as young as 8… and even more horrific about this law is that these children must obey and submit to all the husbands demands. This is outrageous. Why does society get to choose the lives these children must live? Why do they have no say in what's going on to them? Why is the government even considering these despicable laws? Children often face domestic violence, sexual abuse, depression and are forced into have children at a young age. Are these the lives these young girls deserve? To have no rights and be forced into marriage, something they are too little to even understand? The answer is absolutely not, they need the childhood they deserve.. to be young and have no responsibilities, not to be beaten and obey their husbands requests. Children are constantly being taken advantage of all over the world and their childhoods are being taken away, their innocence is being stripped from them and us society and the government does nothing but turns a blind eye and consider these horrendous laws that will change these children's lives forever
“Iraq Considers Marrying Girls as Young as 8, Wives Must Submit to Husband’s Sexual Demands.” The Patriot. Bolton BNP, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://boltonbnp.blogspot.ca/2014/03/iraq-considers-marrying-girls-as-young.html>.
Why is there a young boy in a Louis Vuitton bag you may ask? This young boy seems upset,and very afraid. Why is he sitting in the bag? Why isn’t he holding it? This is because he was put there, forced into the bag and he is afraid. 150 million children worldwide are forced into child labour and many countries just show a blind eye against it including our western culture. This little boy made this expensive handbag that our society buys, but what do we do about the fact a child was forced to make it for little to no money? Absolutely nothing. Societies around the world do nothing but contribute to child labour. That new soccer ball last week you bought from Nike, well odds are it was made by a poor child in Pakistan. Recently Nike was accused of this. We don’t realize what we are doing when we are buying these products, we don’t realize we are contributing to these awful things but we do and it needs to be stopped. Governments around the world have laws against child labour but when it occurs they don’t do anything about it, just like Pakistan. Children are being forced into this and having their childhoods being taken away from them because we society and the government are contributing to it and just showing a blind eye and this is wrong.These children should be at school getting an education, playing at school with their friends. NOT being forced to work long days and get paid nothing... The innocence and child hoods of these kids are being taken right from under them and there's nothing they can do about it because we society and the government just sit back and do nothing, as though they do not matter. (Picerno, Doralba. Less Vanity. N.d. graffiti on concrete wall.) 
What is happening to this girl? Why is someone covering her mouth, not letting her speak?....This young girl is being overpowered by someone. She has no voice because they are covering her mouth. She is the focal point of this image .She seems scared for her life. Is this how a typical young child should be? Scared for their life? Absolutely not! This image is so powerful ...the way this young innocent girl is the focal point , the expression on her face, her fear strongly sends a message to the world of how young children everyday are constantly being taken advantage of and forced into the sex trade. They have no control over their own bodies, like this innocent child, she is owned by those hands, her life is not her own. She deserves a happy childhood but society has taken it from her. 2 million children are exploited every year in the sex trade… 2 million and what's worse of all is that it just keeps going up. These children forced in the sex trade are less than 18 years of age. How old do you think the girl in the photo is? She's about 12. But what are we doing to stop this? When 2 million children are forced to do horrible things every day…? Society and the government just shows a blind eye. In Thailand over 400,000 children all under the age of 16 are forced into the sex trade but their government does little about it because many of the religions there “contribute to community acceptance of sex trafficking”... But why is this okay for the government and society to choose the lives these children must live? It should be up to them. They should be able to have the childhood they deserve.. not the one they are forced to live. They need their pure innocent childhoods,and us society and the government needs to stop showing a blind eye to this issue and help give these children innocence and childhoods back to them.
(“Protecting Children from Sex Trafficking.” Georgia Family. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. <http://www.georgiafamily.com/articles.aspx?articleID=387>.)
Many of you reading this probably have a part time job right? Your parents probably made you because they want you to have a sense of responsibility, correct? Well this isn't the case for this little boy in the photo. This boy’s childhood has been taken away from him and he's forced to grow up to fast. As you can see he’s the focal point. There's nothing around him except for his drum, and all that he owns. Why is he playing his drum in the street right? Well he's playing for money, to provide for himself because he has been abandoned. The actions of this young boy and how the image focuses on just this little boy strongly portrays how 20 million children worldwide are abandoned by their families, society, forcing them to grow up too fast. He seems like he has no hope, his face says it all, but he is still forced to try and provide for himself because this is all he can do. A child should never have to do this, they should sleep in their own warm beds, not on the streets. Society and the government often does nothing about it. We just pretend its not happening because its not happening to us...but it happens everyday and impacts these children's lives like we wouldn’t believe. No child deserve this and us society needs to change and prevent it from happening. (Morgan, Lee. “Children Dumped on Streets.” Daily Mail. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085163/Children-dumped-streets-Greek-parents-afford-them.html>.)So after this blog post I hope you have a different outlook on children around the world, and how many of us have just ignored issues they face. Children are constantly being taken advantage of around the world, stripping them away of their innocence and childhoods, and often no one does anything about it. Children deserve the childhoods we all have had... innocent pure childhood with happy memories... NOT be forced into unspeakable acts and being taken advantage by societies around the world and society and the government needs to stop ignoring these issues in order for these children to receive the childhood and their innocence they deserve
First I want to say great job! This topic is very controversial, especially the first image as it can cross paths with women's rights. In Iraq it is a known fact that women are not seen as equals to men and by using the image of the girls being married off to older men shows how it is not just older women going through this injustice. Also your images seem to connect to adults purposefully taking away children's childhoods, however, I feel that in some cases children's childhoods could be taken away by accident, by things no one could control. If you take the image of the boy on the street who was abandoned, other children could have to fend for themselves because of sickness in the family, or the need of all members of the family to help in order to survive. In these cases their childhood would still be taken away however it wouldn't be purposefully inflicted upon them. In addition I liked how you used pictures that depict things that could happen here and not just typical for other countries. It really brings the message close to home. Do you think children in developing countries who have never had a chance to have a childhood and are surrounded by other children in the same situations would even realize their quality of life isn't as good as it could be since they have nothing to compare it to?
ReplyDeleteWell written! I would like to say this is a great topic and you explained everything completely. I really like the choice in pictures and how they do convey how children are taken from their right to be free like we were when we were younger. You can really see the expressions on their faces and its moving. This topic is very close to me( for when I went to Nepal) and you are right. Children in Nepal, has this happen to them daily. Children are abandoned and left to fend for themselves and they sometimes end up as theses children are in your pictures; trafficked, pushed into marriage ect. I really like the messages your writing and pictures portrayed, it really makes it feel personal and makes you think hard of us vs third world country children and how we didn't have a care in the world but these children and used for other things and don't see a childhood like we have.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog Breanna! The topic you chose was interesting as it was a subject that does not always get as much attention as it deserves. You're right, these children don't have a voice and it makes it impossible for them to speak up for themselves, so it is vital that people speak up for them. We here in the Western world have all enjoyed a carefree, innocent childhood, and I know most people would agree with me when I say that all children deserve the same. The photo of the girls being married is particularly disturbing, because not only are the girls being forced to throw away their childhood, but they are also making a commitment that will affect their whole life. This big of a decision would never be expected of child here in Canada, yet clearly in Iraq, these children don't have a say in the matter. And they don't understand enough to know that what is happening to them is wrong. Do you think that people in these developing countries value children less than adults? Is this why they think it's okay to do such unspeakable acts to them? As well, the photo of the girl with her mouth covered is equally disturbing. I think sex trafficking is a huge issue, and the world is not doing enough to help. reading Lauren's comment, I began to think that, although it's true that childhood can be taken away from kids by accident, it is often purposefully being taken away from them. However I think the adult in these countries are acting out of selfishness and only doing what benefits them, rather than doing it to deliberate take away the children's innocence. It is not a direct attack on the children, but rather exploiting them for people's selfish needs. Which is still despicable. So then , I must ask, what can be done about this? I believe that if we can provide education to these children, we can give them the empowerment they need to get themselves out of such terrible conditions. And most importantly, the children must first recognize that what's happening to them is unacceptable. Informing them of this would allow them to see that they deserve a better life. Would you agree?
ReplyDeleteAgain, great points and a very thought-provoking presentation!