Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood

This book provides a critical examination of the discourses that underpin the regulation of children's access to certain knowledge understood as 'difficult knowledge' and highlights the way this regulation contributes to the construction of childhood, to children's vulnerability, to broader social relationships (including adult-child relations of power), and to the constitution of the 'good' future citizen in developed countries. Through this analysis, the author critically engages with the relationships between childhood, innocence, moral panic, censorship and notions of citizenship. She argues that the regulation of children's access to particular knowledge largely stems from the social construction of childhood innocenceand the socio-cultural-political values that constitute and define childhood. This book explores how and why the strict regulation of children's knowledge, often in the name of protectionor in the child's best interest, can ironically, increase children's prejudice around difference, increase their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, impact on their health and well being, and undermine their competence as children, as well as their abilities to become competent adolescents and adults.