“What about the children?” It is a saying we see written so much on naturist sites, as some person hoists the flag of caution, as they have encountered a finger wagging voice of disapproval. So, we ask, “What about them?” Let’s look at a bigger picture.
We have already stated the toxic and divisive way social media treats our children, earlier in this forums thread, and we feel that the above question should absolutely be directed at them, for the damage they are doing. We have always found it curious that these busy bodies who point the finger, tend only to do it at parents or small organisations, and we cannot help but ask, why is their vitriol not aimed at the corporate giants of the media?
Well we are parents, so what do we think, we have two children, one female 14, and one male almost 18, and they have been raised within the confines of a naturist life, and we have ended up with two very different results. Our method has been the same for both children, they have both had exactly the same life and attitude around them, and yet, they have gone in different directions, so these days, to a degree, we have adopted two different approaches.
We have looked at this from many angles, and we have visited many forums, some family based, and some based in psychology, and to date we have not found anything that would lead us to believe as parents that nudity harms children, we would even say, it helps them.
Paul Abramson, a professor at UCLA focusing on human sexuality, reported. "There's nothing inherently wrong with being nude with members of your family," Research is limited but there is one study, that found exposure to parental nudity found that there are no harmful effects to children. TAASALibrary52.pdf (freebeaches.org.nz)
I remember reading this article below, many years back, and at the time, it really resounded with me, because what caught my attention, I feel it is the one question or point, no one ever mentions. Should the children be left to decide for themselves?
Yes, I am naked around my children. But what is it my critics want to cover up? - The Globe and Mail
There are many areas of life when as adults we intervene, to ensure our children’s safety and care, but if we listened to mainstream media, we would hide them and allow them to foster their body shame and a negative reaction to their bodies. We ask, are we now in danger of smothering them, why is wrong to simply allow a child to choose for themselves, surely, they are the best to make that decision?
We have, and Okay, our son has allowed his friends to completely monopolise his thoughts on this, which sadly has meant he has taken a very firm stand about nudity. He has chosen to go against everything he knows, and has made it clear to us as his parents “Nudity is wrong.” We have chosen to accept that, even though we had hoped he would continue to foster a confidence in his body, but we also understand it was not our place to make such an important decision for him.
Our daughter on the other hand, is embracing her naturist life even more, and has a very natural and informal attitude to it at home and in socially naked situations.
For us, being naked has always been a very matter of fact experience with our children, we have never really demanded it, and always adopted a go with the flow attitude towards it, and as a result our children have naturally fallen into the pattern that suits them best. It is their personal choice, and to date, because we have two children, it has worked, and it as failed equally from a naturist perspective.
Has it changed our perception of the benefits of nudity around children, well no, why would it? If we are honest, we see our son as a victim of a financially driven institution that deliberately goes out of its way to shame, ridicule, and exploit children for gain, for that is exactly what Tik Tok, Facebook, Snap Chat, and their ilk do. It is not social media, it is a platform designed and built to generate huge revenues, and we feel its negative effects show.
Our son, is a heavy user of social media, our daughter does not want it and has no presence at all on it, and that fascinates us. The one with no social media is very body confident and self assured, and the one who uses it the most, has grown insecure, and aggressive when nudity is mentioned, we will leave you to consider that point.
So what about the children? We decided to take a look backwards, because when you look back, naturism was booming in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s, and then it dwindled for a while. In recent years it has started again to grow, so what happened?
Our theory is this: Back in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s, naturism massively embraced children and was family driven. Generations of children, some of whom are here on this site today, grew up embracing a naturist life. Simply put, there were camps all over the country where you go as a family and enjoy naturist facilities. Through the 90’s and 00’s something profound happened, and Rob was actually an inside spectator to it, as he watched the sudden rising of some form of evangelical mainstream outcry on “Chlid Abuse.” At that time, it was linked to satanic rights.
It was the first of two seismic shifts in the UK, the second being the launch and growth of social media. The truth is, it was all a hoax, but the impact it had on the way in which news is reported was huge, and suddenly, everyone was living in terror of their children being abducted and exposed to all nasty kinds of behaviour, and it became deeply ingrained in the social psyche of the nation, and sent ripples across the entire world. The second came from a California based company, who reacted badly to it, Google. Their response to the call, to hunt down and remove all child related material was seen to be veracious. Google were internet leaders, and so had an impact on social media, which was already based in an Americanised Puritan culture, and so it intensified and changed the way the platforms moderated their content. It is funny really, Facebook had more nudity on it than H&E did at the time, but that soon changed.
As a result, naturism went into a form of fetal position, and has remained curled up in a ball ever since, and the children were gradually excluded. In the mad dash to protect children from anything that could be remotely seen as sexual, naturism literally over protected our children out of the frame. The result, we have is two generations of children deprived of the chance to grow body positive and embrace a naked life, and in the vacuum it caused, we have seen the rise of “Adults Only.”
No one on ANW believes that nudity damages children, all of us have seen all of the positives and benefits which are very well documented in this thread, and yet, naturism is failing children, and in doing so, it is also failing their parents, and it is a world wide problem. The fear of finger pointing is driving family naturism out, and honestly, it needs to stop.
We know if our son had a place to undo the narrative of social media, and provide him a safe space to return, the odds are high, he would embrace his confidence and body again, because although he is opposed to us at the moment, he knows the value of it. Where can he go, he is 17, and so not applicable for YBN? As parents, how do we do that, when there is hardly any place to go?
Our daughter craves more naturist environments, but apart from the once a month swim, where can we take her to help her stay the body positive child she is, and watch her grow into an even stronger woman, where else can she go? We have just celebrated national women’s day, but how can we all talk of promoting women in naturism, when children like our daughter are being denied the chance to become a proud and strong naturist female? Where are the facilities?
Naturism enhances the lives and the self confidence of young children, it allows them to be the natural authentic people they are, and the adults they will become. Naturism needs children, and there is no doubt in our minds, “Children need Naturism,” especially now, as they struggle with the toxic narrative of what they see on their phones and computers.
The way we see, the silence in defence of children in naturism is deafening, is not time we changed that?
at March 10, 2023 2:35 PM GMT 
at March 10, 2023 3:45 PM GMT 
