Joud Al-Amri Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Children are losing their innocence too early, teachers and parents have warned. They called for a mechanism to closely monitor the behavior of the children at home and school. Talking to Saudi Gazette, a number of female teachers noted many of their students were behaving as if they were mature women. Robin Al-Thaqafi, a teacher at a private primary girl school in Jeddah, said a student who was hardly 10 made a pass at her. "It was not really sexual harassment but the girl used words that would not be uttered even by mature men and women." Al-Thaqafi said she was surprised that the girl knew so much about sex. "The girl also had perfect knowledge of drugs and alcohol," she claimed. Al-Thaqafi said she looked into the girl's background and found she was from an affluent family. "The girl was from a rich family and living with her parents," she said. Nour Aljohani said her 11-year-old sister, who is 10 years younger than her, learned about sex from her friends at school. She said one day her sister asked her what an orgasm was. "I myself had no knowledge of this word before my first year in the university," she said. Aljohani said she was surprised her sister had become thirsty for sexual knowledge. "I discovered that my younger sister knew much more about sex than me," she said. According to the parents and teachers, young boys are also starting to display similar behavior. Ahmed Mohammed, a businessman who is a father of three, said his 6-year-old son had become very aggressive in his behavior and used language that would make even adults blush. He said his son has become arrogant and does not listen to him any more. Mohammed said one day his son asked him not to talk like old men. "He told me, ‘Your kind of talk has become obsolete and is no longer in use'," he said. Mohammed said his son is always moody and does not want to play outside. "My son is proud that he knows a great deal about life matters as if he is a grown-up man," he said. Shirouq Khayyat, a kindergarten teacher, said children's innocence is gradually disappearing. "This may be due to current technological advancements and the smart tools that helped children acquire knowledge that would usually be considered unsuitable for their age," she said. Shirouq said the children of today do not need to play with each other since they can connect through social networking media tools, including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. "The programs and video clips they have access to may give them information that they use out of context," she said, adding that she noticed girls were paying much attention to their looks and acting like young women already. Dr. Samir Arar, a family psychology consultant, said the environment children grow up in is the main influence on their behavior. He said the first factor affecting children's environments is the family and the second are their schoolmates. "Children may pick up things from their schoolmates that are beyond their comprehension," he said. He said the third factor is the prevailing culture of the current generation while the fourth are satellite channels and social media tools. Arar said parents should monitor their children's television habits so they are not watching programs that may have a bad influence on them. He said the fifth factor is the school, where older students may have a good or bad effect on the younger ones. "Children today have sexual knowledge that we did not have in our time. This has virtually killed their innocence," he said. Arar said children might want to try the things they hear about from their elders. "They may decide to try sex just out of curiosity but this will lead to a real catastrophe," he said. "The factors governing their environment must be controlled, otherwise our children may lose the innocence of their childhood entirely and very early," he said.
