History Main / ChildrenAreInnocent

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E97TheGift The Gift]]", Pedro immediately becomes friends with Williams because, as a mistreated orphan with no friends, he can relate to the stranger. Other than the doctor, he is the only person in Madeiro who believes that Williams is no threat to the village.

** Both Mary and Colin are ill-tempered snots, but they were failed by all the adults around them and severely neglected during the developmental stages of their childhood. Once they have a JerkassRealization, they strive to be better people.
** The entire village is racist to Camila and excludes her. Mary doesn't, and welcomes her as a friend.

* In ''Film/TheWildBunch'' children are shown to be among the most violent characters in the film, and in a Peckinpah film that's impressive. A child smiles as he watches the Mexican Army (which his father is the general of) get massacred by rebels, and later lands the killing shot on Warren Oates, still smiling. In the first 25 minutes, a group of children are shown torturing scorpions (who only LOOK scary) by trapping them and coating them with fire ants, and later setting the cage ON FIRE, and, after the massacre in town, run around pretending to shoot the corpses, yelling "Bang! Bang!" in a way that will make anyone feel chills.

*** Lampshaded and mocked in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', with the comment that the sound of children at play is a wonderful thing to hear, ''provided you're too far away to make out what they're saying''.

The age European culture has assigned to the end of "childhood" has grown over the years and an "in between" period was added in TheFifties or so — "teenage-hood" — but the meme remains: a child is a BlankSlate not yet sullied by the [[GrowingUpSucks evils of the world]]. Only upon [[ComingOfAgeStory coming of age]] do they lose this innocence and the protection it confers. A [[DeathOfAChild child's death]] is a tragedy; but a young man just a year older than him [[WeHaveReserves is in the most expendable demographic in the world]].

Victorian-era Anglosphere invented modern "childhood". Inspired by the ideals of The Enlightenment and an interpretation of Literature/TheBible's New Testament based on them, they came to the conclusion that the time people spent between being a baby and being useful in mines and fields (or [[BabyFactory for making more babies]]) was special and precious — that people this age were innocent and full of wonder and beloved by God, and that they should be loved and protected and cared for by society in general. They came to believe that there was a stark contrast between the [[RousseauWasRight innocent and instinctual goodness]] of children and the cynical evil of adults. After several decades the grassroots belief in and support for "childhood" became so strong that children[[note]] Or more usually, failing that, just the girls[[/note]] under certain ages were actually forbidden from doing certain types of work despite the dedicated lobbying of business interests who didn't want to lose their smallest and cheapest workers (e.g. smaller coal-miners mean smaller mineshafts). By 1900 only a fifth or so of British and US children (under 16) were in full-time employment, with the UK [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_and_Young_Persons_Act_1933 restricting child labor]] in 1933 and the USA [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act doing the same]] in 1938.

The age European culture has assigned to the end of "childhood" has grown over the years and an "in between" period was added in TheFifties or so — "teenage-hood" — but the meme remains: a child is a BlankSlate not yet sullied by the [[GrowingUpSucks evils of the world]]. Only upon [[ComingOfAgeStory coming of age]] do they lose this innocence and the protection it confers. A [[DeathOfAChild child's death]], [[MenAreTheExpendableGender even that of a boy]], is a tragedy; but a young man just a year older than him [[WeHaveReserves is in the most expendable demographic in the world]].

* ''WebOriginal/MommySleepsInTheBasement'': Paisley. Good God, poor Paisley. She ends up revealing some incredibly dark stuff to her teacher and classmates in a poem about her family, oblivious to how abnormal this all is. Many of her classmates are oblivious as well, with only Mrs June (and the reader) being fully aware of what's going on.

** Butters is the closest thing to innocent on the show, being a TokenGoodTeammate and WideEyedIdealist in such a CrapsackWorld.
** Stan and Kyle, despite their foibles, have at least some shred of innocence in them when a plot calls for it.

* ''Literature/TheHammer2022'': According to Tiny's old companion, Estina, humans could become spirit tamers if they were pure of heart and possessed enough mana to forge a contract. But she remarks that the only ones pure enough would likely be children. Given his love for inflicting harm on neer-do-wells, Tiny seriously doubts that he's pure enough despite being currently a child, but soon realizes that he made a contract with Lunar Wolf by accident when he broke the chains on Wolf's soul.

* ''Webcomic/TheHammer2022'': According to Tiny's old companion, Estina, humans could become spirit tamers if they [[OnlyThePureOfHeart were pure of heart]] and possessed enough mana to forge a contract. But she remarks that the only ones pure enough would likely be children. Given his love for inflicting harm on neer-do-wells, Tiny seriously doubts that he's pure enough despite currently being a child via MentalTimeTravel, but soon realizes that he made a contract with Lunar Wolf by accident when he broke the chains on Wolf's soul.

* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' the titular character is the epithome of this trope in-universe, though not the only one, in her series is extremly unlikely that a child would go into evil by their own volition, even mischievous ones like Lucinda only do it to get attention, or jealous like Amber repent very soon of their bad deeds...

*** Lampshaded and mocked in ''Hogfather'', with the comment that the sound of children at play is a wonderful thing to hear, ''provided you're too far away to make out what they're saying''.

Victorian-era Anglosphere invented modern "childhood". Inspired by the ideals of The Enlightenment and an interpretation of Literature/TheBible's New Testament based on them, they came to the conclusion that the time people spent between being a baby and being useful in mines and fields (or [[BabyFactory for making more babies]]) was special and precious — that people this age were innocent and full of wonder and beloved by God, and that they should be loved and protected and cared for by society in general. They came to believe that there was a stark contrast between the [[RousseauWasRight innocent and instinctual goodness]] of children and the cynical evil of adults. After several decades the grassroots belief in and support for "childhood" became so strong that children[[note]] Or more usually, failing that, just the girls[[/note]] under certain ages were actually forbidden from doing certain types of work despite the dedicated lobbying of business interests who didn't want to lose their smallest and cheapest workers (e.g. smaller coal-miners mean smaller mineshafts). By 1900 only a fifth or so of British and US children (under 16) were in full-time employment, with the UK [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_and_Young_Persons_Act_1933 banning child labor entirely]] in 1933 and the USA [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act doing the same]] in 1938.

Victorian-era Anglosphere invented modern "childhood". Inspired by the ideals of The Enlightenment and an interpretation of Literature/TheBible's New Testament based on them, they came to the conclusion that the time people spent between being a baby and being useful in mines and fields (or [[BabyFactory for making more babies]]) was special and precious — that people this age were innocent and full of wonder and beloved by God, and that they should be loved and protected and cared for by society in general. They came to believe that there was a stark contrast between the [[RousseauWasRight innocent and instinctual goodness]] of children and the cynical evil of adults. After several decades the grassroots belief in and support for "childhood" became so strong that children[[note]] Or more usually, failing that, just the girls[[/note]] under certain ages were actually forbidden from doing certain types of work despite the dedicated lobbying of business interests who didn't want to lose their smallest and cheapest workers (e.g. smaller coal-miners mean smaller mineshafts). By 1900 only a fifth or so of British and US children (under 16) were in full-time employment, with the USA [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act banning child labour entirely]] in 1938.

Victorian-era Anglosphere invented modern "childhood". Inspired by the ideals of The Enlightenment and an interpretation of Literature/TheBible's New Testament based on them, they came to the conclusion that the time people spent between being a baby and being useful in mines and fields (or [[BabyFactory for making more babies]]) was special and precious — that people this age were innocent and full of wonder and beloved by God, and that they should be loved and protected and cared for by society in general. They came to believe that there was a stark contrast between the [[RousseauWasRight innocent and instinctual goodness]] of children and the cynical evil of adults. After several decades the grassroots belief in and support for "childhood" became so strong that children[[note]] Or more usually, failing that, just the girls[[/note]] under certain ages were actually forbidden from doing certain types of work despite the dedicated lobbying of business interests who didn't want to lose their smallest and cheapest workers (e.g. smaller coal-miners mean smaller mineshafts). By 1900 only a fifth or so of British and US children (under 16) were in full-time employment, and the USA finally ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act banned child labour entirely]]'' in 1938.

Victorian-era Anglosphere invented modern "childhood". Inspired by the ideals of The Enlightenment and an interpretation of Literature/TheBible's New Testament based on them, they came to the conclusion that the time people spent between being a baby and being useful in mines and fields (or [[BabyFactory for making more babies]]) was special and precious — that people this age were innocent and full of wonder and beloved by God, and that they should be loved and protected and cared for by society in general. They came to believe that there was a stark contrast between the [[RousseauWasRight innocent and instinctual goodness]] of children and the cynical evil of adults. After several decades the grassroots belief in and support for "childhood" became so strong that children[[note]] Or more usually, failing that, just the girls[[/note]] under certain ages were actually forbidden from doing certain types of work despite the dedicated lobbying of business interests who didn't want to lose their smallest and cheapest workers (e.g. smaller coal-miners mean smaller mineshafts). By 1900 only a fifth or so of British and US children (under 16) were in full-time employment and even the world's most pro-corporation and [[RedScare rabidly]] [[DirtyCommunists anti-socialist]] democratic state, the USA, actually finally ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act banned child labour entirely]]'' in 1938.

Part and parcel of this is depicting children as the other meaning of innocent: naive, gullible, and too trusting. They can [[InnocentInaccurate misunderstand anything other than the most obvious]]. This can lead to an unawareness that they're doing anything wrong. They can commit offenses unwittingly and face a BewilderingPunishment. Children have to learn empathy, and not to be self-centered, and also often have a poor grasp of consequences of their actions. This can then lead to AmbiguousInnocence.

** Played straight in some episodes ''even by Cartman'', like the one where the kids simply cannot fathom that people kill each other for having different-colored skin, or when they use "fag" without implying gay (for obnoxious Harley riders), or when they run around town trying to buy a "nerection" for [[TheLoinsSleepTonight Kyle's dad]] so that Kyle's parents will stop fighting.

* {{Discussed}} in ''VideoGame/PeretEmHeruForThePrisoners''. According to Professor Tsuchida, the Egyptians believed that children were "tabula rasa", blank slates who were completely free of sin. Ayuto complains that Rin proves otherwise, as the BrattyHalfPint has done nothing but lie and pull pranks for her own amusement. Rin takes offense, and Nei berates Ayuto for calling her out; however, if the player isn't careful, [[spoiler:Rin ends up being the first to get judged by the Pharoah and killed for her crimes]].