Introduction

Abstract

Children have not always been seen as a distinct social problem. Until this century, childhood was a brief and unimportant phase of life; infant mortality rates were high and those children who survived were quickly introduced into the responsibilities of adult life. As children had neither rights nor independent status, they were vulnerable to all forms of physical and economic exploitation and abuse. Intervention into family life was virtually unknown, since the principle of family autonomy was supported in many influential sections of society (both secular and religious). The history of childhood, and the history of children as a social problem, are primarily a history of changes in the legal and social relations of children with the adult world.