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> The last century has been painful for children as every venue of leadership has been used for abuse... I'm going to preface this with "I have no hard data to

> The last century has been painful for children as every venue of leadership has been used for abuse... I'm going to preface this with "I have no hard data to back this up", but I have a feeling that this isn't a matter of the last century as being more of a problem than previous ones. Rather, I think it's the globalization of communication that has brought it to light in that time. This sort of thing has probably been going on since there have been positions of power (pretty much forever) but in the last century it's become much more easy to report on cases when they're found. And now thanks to the internet, with the ease of communication between people that you may never meet in person otherwise, corroborating stories and figuring out that there's a problem is an easier process. It does a lot to highlight the dumpster fire that is the terrible side of the human race, and many positions of power are still powerful enough to evade consequences too much of the time, but maybe one day it will give voice enough to the oppressed and abused to be able to start making a real difference. (Not that it should be _solely_ their responsibility, but in order for the process to start, they have to be able to speak and be heard.)

pbronez 5y ago
That's a useful point. I think economics play a role as well. Specifically, when the economy increases rewards to education and higher-level thinking, the damage caused by child abuse becomes felt more broadly. It's always been horrible for the individual victims, but it's easier for society to turn a blind eye when it's an easily replaced unskilled child laborer than when it's a young student on a long road to a sophisticated trade. I think you can see this dynamic in many places. For example, the birthrate goes down when wealth goes up. You invest more in fewer children. That investment includes caring more about ensuring they are treated humanely. It's always been wrong, but now it's also expensive.
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  Agreed, bit for the notion that parents with more children would care less per child: As a parent with multiple children, there seems to be a network effect, because you see them interact more with one another as a group, so the caring compounds.
mensetmanusman 5y ago
I was thinking someone along these lines as well, but then taking into consideration the massive number of wars and total number of deaths in the last century compared to much of human history, we are still slowly recovering from that. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/6/23/8832311/war-casualties-600-years https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/6...

pbronez 5y ago

That's a useful point. I think economics play a role as well. Specifically, when the economy increases rewards to education and higher-level thinking, the damage caused by child abuse becomes felt more broadly. It's always been horrible for the individual victims, but it's easier for society to turn a blind eye when it's an easily replaced unskilled child laborer than when it's a young student on a long road to a sophisticated trade. I think you can see this dynamic in many places. For example, the birthrate goes down when wealth goes up. You invest more in fewer children. That investment includes caring more about ensuring they are treated humanely. It's always been wrong, but now it's also expensive.

mensetmanusman 5y ago
Agreed, bit for the notion that parents with more children would care less per child: As a parent with multiple children, there seems to be a network effect, because you see them interact more with one another as a group, so the caring compounds.

mensetmanusman 5y ago

I was thinking someone along these lines as well, but then taking into consideration the massive number of wars and total number of deaths in the last century compared to much of human history, we are still slowly recovering from that. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/6/23/8832311/war-casualties-600-years https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/6...