European legislators’ attitudes toward childhood sexuality from the perspective of age of consent legislation

Childhood sexuality is a culturally constructed notion, which has constantly been subjected to change. Various constructions of childhood sexuality represent different attitudes toward children's engagement in sex. As a substantial factor in regulating children's sexuality, a country's age of consent legislation is an important indicator of the national legislator's attitudes toward childhood sexuality. This study summarizes four main discourses around child sexuality, ranging from traditional constructions that solely focus on protecting the child's “innocence” to modern notions that provide more leeway for children to explore their sexuality. By juxtaposing these discourses against the current age of consent laws in 57 European jurisdictions, it appears that national law makers in Europe are still mainly influenced by the traditional construction of childhood sexuality, which results in various negative consequences. To avoid the disconnect between academic discussions about childhood sexuality and legislatos' rationales for their actions, it is recommended that legislators take the latest findings in academia into account and reflect on the rationales behind their legislation.

Disentangling practitioners’ understandings of child sexual exploitation: The risks of assuming otherwise?

This article reports findings from a qualitative study investigating the efficacy and the effects of a child sexual exploitation awareness raising intervention with young people. Drawing on in-depth interviews with members of a multi-agency team set up to prevent child sexual exploitation, we elucidate the way in which practitioners communicate the problem of child sexual exploitation and how risk registers are deployed to assess the dangerousness of young people’s behaviours. In examining practitioners’ understandings of child sexual exploitation, we illuminate the ways in which educative interventions in this domain are informed by a confluence of policy guidelines and personal/experiential perceptions. Unravelling the tensions arising between these two frames of interpretation, we illustrate that – despite routine recourse to embedded professional knowledge – underlying moral and cultural assumptions alongside anxieties about childhood sexuality influence practitioners’ understandings of the nature of risk, who is at risk and the context in which risks manifest themselves.

Research on childhood sexuality: Limitations and recommendations

Children may display behaviors and have feelings of a sexual nature. However, due to the paucity of research, society often fails to acknowledge developmentally-appropriate sexual experiences in childhood, and there is no consensus on which behaviors are normative. This review aims to describe the main conclusions of studies in this field and to analyze the gaps in knowledge, the existing methodological shortcomings, and the resulting recommendations for future research. According to findings, studies should pay more attention to thoughts and feelings related to sexuality, the children’s perspective; normative, healthy sexual expressions; and the relevant sexual socialization factors. Both direct and indirect methods, quantitative and qualitative techniques, should be combined to enhance the richness and validity of findings. The article also presents ethical tips. In conclusion, there is a need to further examine childhood sexuality from a comprehensive, ecological approach that provides an empirical basis for the development of interventions in children´s sexual health.

Deepening knowledge of online child sexual victimisation

This concluding chapter calls for greater clarity and agreement on definitions and measurement practices concerning online child sexual victimisation (OCSV). First, there is a need for agreed definitions of OCSV that distinguish between normative childhood sexuality and sexual violence, both on- and offline. Second, research, policy, and practices must reflect that the child is only one element that requires protection. Taking a cybersecurity asset approach, the chapter emphasises the need for coordinated action to enhance and protect social goods, such as trust in technology, law enforcement resources, and fundamental rights. Finally, it recommends that guardianship responsibility is extended to children themselves and considers some of the technical tools that might assist their participation.

Sexual practices in childhood

This chapter discusses how childhood sexuality has been researched in historical, clinical, and academic studies outside the rapid evidence assessment (REA). It finds that, first, recognition of childhood sexuality is evident in all three fields. Second, even when confronted by contradictory evidence, Sigmund Freud's theory retains currency within which understanding of childhood (sexual) development is reported; acceptance of the latency of childhood sexuality (or asexuality) perpetuates a context for framing childhood as asexual. Actions such as imitations of adult sex, watching pornography, and concern about early puberty stray into the realms of the abnormal as a consequence. The chapter then examines some of the sexual practices engaged in by children mediated by the online environment. It considers consensual youth-involved sexual imagery online and the difficult task of distinguishing between normative sexual exploration, ‘sexting’, and online child sexual victimisation (OCSV).

Childhood sexuality in Africa: A child rights perspective

It is an undeniable fact that children in Africa face many challenges in their sexual health and development trajectories. One of the challenges that children face is ideological, that is, the social construction of childhood sexuality and the effects of that construction on law and policy and on what information and services children may access regarding sex and sexuality. Adults tend to represent children as sexually innocent and incompetent, and their actions toward children focus on preserving this sexual innocence and averting sexual risks. The article discusses how this ideological positioning of children shapes sexuality education, and the criminalisation of sexual conduct between consenting adolescents. Legal instruments and related interpretive instruments such as court judgments and the General Comments and Recommendations of treaty-monitoring bodies play an important role as they construct meanings of childhood sexuality that align with or contradict dominant representations of childhood as sexual innocence which has effects for children's sexual rights. The article analyses how General Comments of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee of Experts have represented childhood sexuality. It argues for the transformation of views about children toward perceiving children as having sexual agency to the extent of their evolving capacities, as a prerequisite to addressing challenges that children face in Africa relating to sexuality. It recommends that the African Committee of Experts should, in its interpretation of the African Children's Charter, construct childhood sexuality positively to represent children as sexual agents rather than positioning them as sexually innocent which also implies viewing any sexual activity of the child as inherently harmful or as a mark of deviance or corruption.