I think that proper institution of children’s rights is imperative in creating a happy and safe society with a bright future ahead of it. However, children’s rights are not actually as accessible or widespread as you might expect. Fact is, even in places where you may think that proper children’s rights are in place, they most likely are not. This might make no sense to you, so let me elaborate.
At first glance, it does seem like the widely accepted Convention on the Rights of the Child covers everything a child should have rights to. And this is correct, for the most part. But what most people fail to realize is that these are not the exact same as human rights, which I think they should be. The issue at hand is that children are their parents’ property until they turn 18 years of age. If you tell a parent that they’re mistreating their child, you’ll get a response such as “Don’t tell me how to raise my child!”. Their child. The child is theirs, as in their property. This is what’s normalized, and I think that’s wrong. It’s evident that kids don’t have proper human rights until they turn 18. This isn’t to say that parents should just let their children do whatever they want without any surveillance, it’s just that I find this sense of ownership over the child inherently immoral.
That sounds bad, so how do we fix it? Well, I thi
nk that treating everyone no matter how old they are with decent respect and dignity would be a great start. If we don’t treat kids like human beings and give them honesty and genuine care, I do not think that our society will ever truly be considered advanced. The way we treat children shapes how they will treat their children in the future.
I better clarify that I’m not biased in saying this. If it seems like I am, seeing as I am also a child speaking on this matter, I assure you I’m not. I’m being as objective as I can here. Children should of course be protected and supervised, but parents treating them like property is just wrong.