Do children have sexual desires?
November 22nd 2006 00:04
Well, depends what you mean. Children are "sexual" in some sense from the day they're born. The Wikipedia article on the subject describes normal development, and makes the general observation:
"Although there is variation between individuals, children generally are curious about their own bodies and those of others and engage in explorative sex play. However, child sexuality is fundamentally different from goal-driven adult sexual behavior, and imitation of adult behaviors such as bodily penetration and oral-genital contact are very uncommon, but are more common among children who have been sexually abused. Children with other types of behaviour disorder may also display more behaviours of a sexual nature than other children."
I briefly looked into this question a while back, in relation to a "But think about the children" comment on "fucking in public". I've pasted below my response.
One more thought to add. When people talk about censorship protecting children's "innocence", do they mean much more than it protects children's ignorance?
... of course, there are arguments to be had about whether ignorance itself is or isn't a desirable condition. Ignorance of troubles in the world, for instance -- one might claim it a good thing that people have at least a portion of their lives where they needn't worry and can believe in fairy tales...
You provoked my curiosity enough to make me do a cursory net search. Found among other things a Swedish study on childhood sexuality...
What I wanted was to identify what sexual behaviours start at what ages. But all of the studies seem to be very inconclusive -- partly because it's the sort of field that is ethically difficult to research. In particular, there was very little talk about specific ages.
My main impression is that most children are not that sexual until age 6, and they tend to get more sexual from age 8 onwards.
Two quotes from the Swedish paper:
"[A] study was carried out on the sexual behaviour of preschool children at nurseries in an average Swedish municipality (Larsson, 1994; Lindblad, Gustafsson, Larsson & Lundin, 1995). The staff caring for 251 children aged two to six of both sexes observed the children’s behaviour and then answered a questionnaire on the behaviours they had observed… A total of 6% of the children had at some time been seen to masturbate and this usually occurred during rests… Some other behaviours were very uncommon (< 1%), for example, children inserting objects in their own anus or vagina or that of another child, as well as attempting to touch the sexual organs of staff. Less than 3% of the children in the study had been observed initiating explicit sex play with other children, while 6% could be drawn into such games by another child. The conclusion of the study is that sexual behaviours described as common in children exposed to sexual abuse are uncommon in an ordinary preschool population."
"In an American study by Haugaard & Tilly (1988) 42% of the 1,700 students questioned of both sexes had had some sexual experience with another child before puberty. Kissing and hugging was most common as well as looking at each other’s sexual organs. Lamb & Coakley (1993) asked female students and found that 85% had been involved in sex play, often with some type of genital touching. Just under half had played with someone of the opposite sex and the experiences they remembered were usually from the age of about eight. The games normally took place together with a friend, who in the majority of cases was around the same age. A large number of the women also stated that the experience was arousing or exciting. A Swedish study for which only preliminary results are available so far (Larsson, Lindell & Svedin, in progress) asked 269 students in the final year of upper secondary school about their experience of sexuality before puberty. 83% of all respondents answered that they had had some form of sexual experience involving touching themselves, while almost as many, 82%, had taken part in such activities with one or more friends. The most common behaviour was exploring the sexual organs and self-stimulation. Together with friends the most common behaviours were love games involving kissing and hugging, talking about sex and looking at and examining each other’s sexual organs. When asked whether any adult had known about the game at the time, one in seven answered that this was the case while one in three were uncertain and just over half answered no. From age 11 onwards it was quite common among the boys to watch pornographic films or look at pornographic magazines together."
"Although there is variation between individuals, children generally are curious about their own bodies and those of others and engage in explorative sex play. However, child sexuality is fundamentally different from goal-driven adult sexual behavior, and imitation of adult behaviors such as bodily penetration and oral-genital contact are very uncommon, but are more common among children who have been sexually abused. Children with other types of behaviour disorder may also display more behaviours of a sexual nature than other children."
I briefly looked into this question a while back, in relation to a "But think about the children" comment on "fucking in public". I've pasted below my response.
One more thought to add. When people talk about censorship protecting children's "innocence", do they mean much more than it protects children's ignorance?
... of course, there are arguments to be had about whether ignorance itself is or isn't a desirable condition. Ignorance of troubles in the world, for instance -- one might claim it a good thing that people have at least a portion of their lives where they needn't worry and can believe in fairy tales...
***
You provoked my curiosity enough to make me do a cursory net search. Found among other things a Swedish study on childhood sexuality...
What I wanted was to identify what sexual behaviours start at what ages. But all of the studies seem to be very inconclusive -- partly because it's the sort of field that is ethically difficult to research. In particular, there was very little talk about specific ages.
My main impression is that most children are not that sexual until age 6, and they tend to get more sexual from age 8 onwards.
Two quotes from the Swedish paper:
"[A] study was carried out on the sexual behaviour of preschool children at nurseries in an average Swedish municipality (Larsson, 1994; Lindblad, Gustafsson, Larsson & Lundin, 1995). The staff caring for 251 children aged two to six of both sexes observed the children’s behaviour and then answered a questionnaire on the behaviours they had observed… A total of 6% of the children had at some time been seen to masturbate and this usually occurred during rests… Some other behaviours were very uncommon (< 1%), for example, children inserting objects in their own anus or vagina or that of another child, as well as attempting to touch the sexual organs of staff. Less than 3% of the children in the study had been observed initiating explicit sex play with other children, while 6% could be drawn into such games by another child. The conclusion of the study is that sexual behaviours described as common in children exposed to sexual abuse are uncommon in an ordinary preschool population."
"In an American study by Haugaard & Tilly (1988) 42% of the 1,700 students questioned of both sexes had had some sexual experience with another child before puberty. Kissing and hugging was most common as well as looking at each other’s sexual organs. Lamb & Coakley (1993) asked female students and found that 85% had been involved in sex play, often with some type of genital touching. Just under half had played with someone of the opposite sex and the experiences they remembered were usually from the age of about eight. The games normally took place together with a friend, who in the majority of cases was around the same age. A large number of the women also stated that the experience was arousing or exciting. A Swedish study for which only preliminary results are available so far (Larsson, Lindell & Svedin, in progress) asked 269 students in the final year of upper secondary school about their experience of sexuality before puberty. 83% of all respondents answered that they had had some form of sexual experience involving touching themselves, while almost as many, 82%, had taken part in such activities with one or more friends. The most common behaviour was exploring the sexual organs and self-stimulation. Together with friends the most common behaviours were love games involving kissing and hugging, talking about sex and looking at and examining each other’s sexual organs. When asked whether any adult had known about the game at the time, one in seven answered that this was the case while one in three were uncertain and just over half answered no. From age 11 onwards it was quite common among the boys to watch pornographic films or look at pornographic magazines together."
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