Salon.com > Tweens

The war on 12-year-old girls

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:05:00 +0000

Behold the scariest, most dangerous creature in America: the 12-year-old girl. Better shut her down.

It's been an alarmingly terrible week for girls. There's been the sickening story of the death of Amanda Todd, whose odyssey of bullying and shaming began when she was a curious seventh-grader who responded to a webcam user's request for a "flash" of her young breasts. On the bright side, though, there was also the cheery news that vaccinations won't turn 11- and 12-year-old girls into dirty whores. That's got to be some form of possible advancement for female health, because "promiscuity risk" is still the No. 1 concern parents have about Gardasil, the vaccine against the HPV virus that can lead to cervical cancer. Great to know we live in a country where families are more worried about the imaginary risk of their daughters' sexual behavior than the real one of viruses and cancer.

The HPV vaccine won’t turn your daughters into tramps

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:58:00 +0000

You can rest easy, folks. Apparently protecting our daughters from the HPV virus — and, by extension, the threat of cervical cancer — won't turn her into a raging slutmonster. A new three-year Kaiser Permanete/Emory University study published this week in the journal Pediatrics reveals that girls who've been vaccinated with Gardasil at ages 11 and 12 showed no higher rates of pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and contraceptive use than girls who hadn't. The results of the study made major headlines Monday, with CBS News reassuring us that "HPV Shots Don't Make Girls Promiscuous." MedPage declared, "HPV Vaccine No 'License for Sex' in Girls." So I guess it's cool to vaccinate them after all! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find Doctor Who, because I need a Time Lord to explain to me why this crap is still even an issue in 2012.

Keep kids off Facebook

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:45:00 +0000

The news comes as zero surprise to anyone who's ever gone on Facebook and seen the face of a friend's elementary school-age child under the heading "people you may know." Despite the fact that Facebook officially forbids users under the age of 13 from registering, a Reuters report this week reveals there are an estimated 5.6 million of them there anyway. But not mine.

If you're on Facebook and your life intersects in any way with kids, it's easy to assume any human big enough to bang on a keyboard has a page. I have a friend who openly shares her page with her young daughter, another whose kindergartener is on Facebook. The child's profile suggests she's into Dora the Explorer. Other friends routinely get "likes" from my children's schoolmates.

How did all these kids get there? A Microsoft Research study last year found that 36 percent of parents knew their children joined Facebook before age 13 – and that many had helped them do it. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said this week that "It's not surprising to us to see 12-year-olds sneaking onto Facebook," but added that the issue is "particularly complicated" by parents who are assisting their kids in signing up. "Is it troubling?" he asked. "In some ways it is. Is it a story in black and white? Not really." No parenting choice ever is.