The attempted assassination of Malala Yousufzai by the Pakistan Taliban sparked many protests.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The ideal of childhood is a central pillar of both our morality and our legal code, says Andrew Keen
- Keen: The last couple of weeks have brought us two more disturbingly high-profile criminal cases against children
- Unfortunately, Malala was allowed, by her family, by many Pakistanis and by the media to become a spokesman against the Taliban, he says
- Our ideal of childhood is rooted in allowing children to being let alone by the adult world to develop themselves, says Keen
Editor's note: Andrew Keen is a British-American entrepreneur and professional skeptic. He is the author of "The Cult of the Amateur," and "Digital Vertigo." Follow ajkeen on Twitter.
(CNN) -- The ideal of childhood, and the protection
of its innocence, is a central pillar of both our morality and our legal
code. There is, therefore, little that shocks and outrages us more than
crimes by adults against children.
Unfortunately, we have
much to be shocked and outraged about. There have, for example, been a
number of recent pedophile criminal cases inside the Catholic church and
at universities like Pennsylvania University. And in the Congo, the
crimes against children by the warlord Joseph Kony triggered KONY 2012
-- an online crusade made up of mostly children against Kony's abuse of
children.
What is KONY 2012?
The last couple of weeks have brought us two more disturbingly high-profile criminal cases against children.
Andrew Keen
First there was the failed attempt by the medieval Pakistani Taliban to kill the 14-year-old education activist and BBC blogger Malala Yousufzai.
And now there are the lurid accusations against the BBC celebrity Jimmy
Savile, who is alleged to have sexually abused children.
These grotesque crimes
may have been separated by several decades and by thousands of miles,
but they have one thing in common. Both the Pakistani Taliban and Jimmy
Savile sought to destroy the innocence of youth. Savile is accused of
treating children as if they had adult bodies and sexual appetites.
While the Taliban attempt to murder Malala Yousufzai was driven by their
rejection of the idea of education for girls and thus, in a sense, of
the very idea of childhood itself.
But Malala, who is now
recovering from the assassination attempt at an English hospital, shares
our modern conception of childhood. "I have the right of education,"
she told CNN. "I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I
have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the
right to speak up."
Malala's story
Brown: Malala a symbol for girls' rights
Girl shot by Taliban able to stand up
What Malala is claiming
is the right to an autonomous childhood. The right to transform herself
from an innocent child to a knowing adult -- and to be let alone by the
adult world in this journey. This right is mirrored by the experience of
Jimmy Savile's alleged victims, whose innocent childhoods were ruined
by their exposure to his criminal adult appetites.
A Taliban spokesman said
of the attack on Malala: "She has become a symbol of Western culture in
the area. She was openly propagating it. Let this be a lesson."
The Taliban, with their
rejection of the very idea of childhood, are, of course, wrong. But the
Malala case does indeed offer us a "lesson." Yes, we should all be
horrified by this appalling crime against a 14-year-old Pakistani girl
from the Swat Valley but I fear that, in our idealization of childhood
and in our acute sensitivity to the innocence of brave young girls like
Malala, we are ourselves vulnerable to transforming children into
celebrity martyrs -- modern day versions of Joan of Arc.
This happened with KONY 2012, a movement akin, as I wrote earlier this year, to a children's crusade.
And Malala, who was nominated for the 2011 International Children's
Peace Prize, is herself in danger of becoming a symbol of injustice
exploited by everyone from UNICEF to Madonna and CNN itself.
So how did this happen?
Unfortunately, Malala was allowed, by her family, by many Pakistanis and
by the media to become a spokesman against the Taliban. The
well-meaning BBC is partially to blame here, for giving her a highly visible blog that would inevitably attract Taliban ire.
Malala's equally
well-meaning father holds some responsibility too, for allowing his
daughter to become so vulnerable -- as does the world's media for
transforming the teenager into a global celebrity.
Our ideal of childhood
is rooted in allowing children to being let alone by the adult world to
develop themselves. We need adults to fight their political battles --
to have prosecuted Jimmy Savile, to hunt down Joseph Kony, to fight the
Pakistan Taliban. Let's remember that children are, in every sense,
innocent and thus shouldn't be encouraged to become the foot soldiers in
the battle against their own exploitation.
The story of Malala Yousufzai should be seen as both an inspiration and a warning.
CNN is currently
encouraging its readers to send messages to Malala. My message to her is
twofold. Firstly, I dearly hope that you recover quickly from your
wounds. And secondly, once you recover, I hope you'll be able to go back
to the privacy of your childhood, to simply being Malala rather than a
global celebrity whose image is owned by other people.
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