Kids Getting Older Younger

Social media, cultural expectations, increased pressure to succeed – ‘kids these days’ deal with a lot. But is it making them grow up faster or slower than previous generations?

Kids these days don’t get to be kids anymore, say the adults who remember a childhood free from the rules, oversight and digital pressures today’s young people navigate. In some ways, it may be true. The average parent allows their child a smartphone at age 10, opening up a world inaccessible to previous generations, with unlimited access to news, social media and other privileges previously reserved for adults, forcing them into emotional maturity before they reach adulthood. 

There’s a term for it: ‘KGOY’ or ‘kids getting older younger’, meaning children are more savvy than previous generations.

Rooted in marketing, the idea is because of KGOY, kids have greater brand awareness, so products should be advertised to children rather than their parents. The theory has been around since the noughties, and ever since, experts have attempted to prove out the early demise of childhood by pointing to causes ranging from the age at which they get a smartphone, to the fact that kids are now watching more adult television programs, to the problem of teenage girls being pressured to think about their appearance due to greater exposure to beauty ideals on social media.

Yet though many worry that kids may seem to be growing up too quickly, there’s also evidence that they could, in fact, be maturing more slowly. Gen Z are consistently reaching traditional markers of adulthood such as finishing education and leaving home later than previous generations, and studies have shown that teenagers are engaging in ‘adult’ activities such as having sex, dating, drinking alcohol, going out without their parents and driving much later than previous generations.

Technology may be exposing kids to more, making them intellectually savvier. Yet whether they are actually growing up more quickly may be a matter of perspective. It may also be time to update what we think of as the milestones of maturation, and what it really means to grow up fast.

‘Media-delivered ideas’

“What has changed is [kids’] exposure to information,” says Pasnik, “through video platforms to caregiver phones; social media platforms and interactive speakers with unlimited capacity to push content.” Children are now constantly getting what Pasnik calls “media-delivered ideas” – content aimed at adults and viewed mostly over the internet – much sooner than previous generations. 

“There is increased exposure to violent or sexual content at a younger age, which causes a desensitization and normalization, because children’s brains aren’t fully developed to process this in a way that an adult brain can,” says Dr Willough Jenkins, an inpatient director of psychiatry at Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego. “Of course, part of the exposure is to other people, too. Children can communicate with strangers without supervision, which leads to an increased risk of cyberbullying or adult conversations that they are not equipped to handle.”