Nudity in the home (1942) American writer Bonnie Rough lived in Amsterdam and the US while raising her children, and learned that Dutch families typically experienced mixed gender family nudity growing up. In the US, children are not likely to have similar experiences; family nudity typically being nonexistent or gender-segregated. A US survey of 500 mental health and child welfare professionals who were predominantly female, white, and middle-aged indicated that siblings of the same gender bathing together was acceptable to the age of 6 to 8, but of mixed gender only to the age of 5 or 6. Americans avoid talking about the body and sex with their children, in particular not using real or specific names for body parts and functions. Yet giving children correct vocabulary is part of teaching them how to accurately report if they are touched inappropriately. Also, the basic vocabulary is the starting point for a lifetime of sex education, which cannot wait until adolescence to be learned thoroughly. This is made more difficult since most American parents did not learn these things growing up, so they cannot be role models for appropriate behavior. In the Netherlands, sexual education begins at age 4, but in many US communities, early childhood sex ed is thought to be inappropriate. In a 2009 article for the
New York Times "Home" section, Julie Scelfo interviewed parents regarding the nudity of small children at home in situations which might include visitors outside the immediate household. The situations ranged from a three-year-old being naked at a large gathering, to the use of a backyard swim pool becoming an issue when the children of disapproving neighbors participated. While the consensus of reader comments was to allow kids
unsupervised play to the age of five, there was acknowledgment of the possible discomfort of adults who consider such behavior to be inappropriate. While opponents of child nudity referred to the danger of pedophilia, proponents viewed innocent nudity as beneficial compared to the
sexualization of children in toddler beauty pageants with makeup and "sexy" outfits. Although a serious social issue, the American public often greatly overestimates the prevalence of pedophilia, particularly in conspiracy theories such as
Pizzagate and
QAnon. This phenomenon has been described by Michael Karger as a moral panic, a social movement against an exaggerated or fabricated threat from individuals or groups believed to undermine the safety and security of society, resulting from restrictive norms surrounding nudity and sexuality.
Parent-child nudity In 1995, Gordon and Schroeder contended that "there is nothing inherently wrong with bathing with children or otherwise appearing naked in front of them", noting that doing so may provide an opportunity for parents to provide important information. They noted that by ages five to six, children begin to develop a sense of modesty, and recommended to parents who desire to be sensitive to their children's wishes that they respect a child's modesty from that age onwards. In a 1995 review of the literature, Paul Okami concluded that there was no reliable evidence linking exposure to parental nudity to any negative effect. Three years later, his team finished an 18-year longitudinal study that showed, that childhood exposure to nudity was associated with slight beneficial effects in adolescents, with better social and sexual adjustment. In 1999, psychologist
Barbara Bonner recommended against nudity in the home if children exhibit sexual play of a type that is considered problematic. In 2019, psychiatrist Lea Lis recommended that parents allow nudity as a natural part of family life when children are very young, but to respect the modesty that is likely to emerge with puberty. In an article by sociologist Jacqui Gabb, the relationships between fathers and children is recognized as a potential source of anxiety that requires setting boundaries to manage intimate relations. It was found that contemporary family relations placed the response of the child as the controlling factor; it was the children who decided, usually in adolescence, when nudity became embarrassing and privacy was required in bathrooms. In Northern European countries, family nudity is normal, which teaches from an early age that nakedness need not be sexual. Bodily modesty is not part of the Finnish identity due to the universal use of the sauna, a historical tradition that has been maintained.
Peer group nudity Societies have various norms regarding children of similar age being nude together when needed, such as changing clothes or bathing. When very young, this may be in mixed gender groups; with
sex segregation beginning at or before puberty. Different norms may apply to girls, on the assumption that they are more modest. kindergarten (1987)
Preschool daycare The normal behavior of very young children may become an issue outside the home. Daycare in Denmark had traditionally been tolerant of nudity and sexuality among preschool children until the beginning of the 21st century, but differences of opinion have arisen with the possibility that not only caregivers but other children may be accused of inappropriate behavior or abuse. In New Zealand, school staff confront different points of view between those that think children are sexual in age appropriate ways that begin before puberty, versus those that think children are asexual until after puberty. In the former view, behavior involving genitals may be seen as normal play; the latter view, any childhood sexuality is seen as a sign of abuse, which may include labeling one child as an abuser. In the 1980s and 1990s, a number of charges were brought against daycare providers, mainly in the US, alleging sexual abuse and satanic rituals, but were rarely sustained; being based upon improper techniques for interviewing children, using leading questions and sometimes coercion to elicit the desired result. Pedophilia panics in France and the United States were found to be due to sensational media reports and political crusading rather than any increase in molestation incidents, which remain rare. However, the term moral panic should not be used to claim that a social problem is not real, as sometimes occurs. Researcher Steven Angelides finds that the social movement to address the issue of
child sexual abuse has had the unintended consequence of reinforcing a public perception of pre-pubescent sexuality as nonexistent, which erases the normal sexual development of children.
Schools and recreation By the 1990s,
communal showers in American schools had become "uncomfortable", not only because students were accustomed to more privacy at home, but because young people became more
self-conscious based upon the comparison to mass media images of unrealistic bodies. The trend for privacy is being extended to public schools, colleges and community facilities replacing "gang showers" and open locker rooms with individual stalls and changing rooms. A 2014 study of schools in England found that 53% of boys and 67.5% of girls did not shower after physical education (PE) classes. Other studies indicate that not showering, while often related to being naked with peers, is also related to lower intensity of physical activity and involvement in sports. The change in privacy also addresses issues of transgender usage and family use when one parent accompanies children of differing gender. A shift in attitudes has come to societies historically open to nudity. In the
Netherlands children up to age 12 used mixed gender communal showers at school. In the 1980s showering became gender-segregated, but in the 2000s, some shower in a bathing suit. In Denmark, secondary school students are now avoiding showering after gym classes. In interviews, students cited the lack of privacy, fears of being judged by idealized standards, and the possibility of being photographed while naked. Similar results were found in schools in Norway.
Communal nudity Some societies, many in Northern Europe, are tolerant of nudity in places designated as appropriate for clothing optional recreation. Young children in the Netherlands often play outdoors or in public wading pools nude. While this continues, parents must now be more vigilant of strangers taking pictures. A school in New Zealand decided in 2008 that it was safer for five-year-old students to change poolside rather than use the crowded changing room at a public aquatic center. After two weeks, the practice was abandoned due to complaints made by other users. In their 1986 study on the effects of social nudity on children, Dennis Craig Smith and William Sparks concluded that "the viewing of the unclothed body, far from being destructive to the psyche, seems to be either benign or to actually provide positive benefits to the individuals involved". As recently as 1996 the YMCA maintained a policy of allowing very young children to accompany their parents into the locker room of either gender, which some health care professionals questioned. A contemporary solution has been to provide separate family changing rooms.
Naturism The naturist/nudist point of view is that children are "nudists at heart" and that naturism provides the ideal environment for healthy development. It is noted that modern psychology generally agrees that children can benefit from an open environment where the bodies of others their own age of both sexes are not hidden. However, there is less agreement regarding children and unrelated adults being nude. While some doctors have taken the view that some exposure of children to adult nudity (particularly parental nudity) may be healthy, others—notably
Benjamin Spock—disagreed. Spock's view was later attributed to the lingering effect of
Freudianism on the medical profession. Many tend to view naturism as indecent, and possibly a danger to children, based upon the assumption that nudity is always sexual. Naturist organizations have worked to present their own view that naturism is respectable, maintaining rules such as favoring family membership and excluding single men while offering evidence of the benefits in physical and mental health.
Farm & Wilderness, a summer camp system in Vermont, did not require clothing from its founding in 1939 until the 1980s. From the 1980s to the 2000s, the camps only permitted nudity while swimming; the camp no longer permits nudity.
Kanakuk Kamps, a Christian summer camp in
Branson, Missouri, banned nudity after a camp counselor committed sexual abuse.
Sex education In general, the United States remains uniquely
puritanical in its moral judgements compared to other Western, developed nations. As of 2015, 37 U.S. states required that sex education curricula include lessons on abstinence and 25 required that a "just say no" approach be stressed. Studies show that early and complete sex education does not increase the likelihood of becoming sexually active, but leads to better health outcomes overall. The health textbooks in Finnish secondary schools emphasize the normalcy of non-sexual nudity in saunas and gyms as well as openness to the appropriate expression of developing sexuality. The Netherlands also has open and comprehensive sex education beginning as early as age 4. In addition to good health outcomes, the program promoted gender equality. Dutch illustrated books for children depict naked bodies when appropriate.
Tous à Poil! (Everybody Gets Naked!), a French picture book for children, was first published in 2011 with the stated purpose of presenting a view of nudity in opposition to media images of the ideal body but instead depicting ordinary people swimming naked in the sea including a teacher and a policeman. Attempts by the
Union for a Popular Movement to exclude the book from schools prompted French booksellers and librarians to hold a nude protest in support of the book's viewpoint. As part of a science program on Norwegian public television (
NRK), a series on puberty intended for 8–12-year-olds includes explicit information and images of reproduction, anatomy, and the changes that occur with the approach of puberty. Rather than diagrams or photos, the videos were shot in a locker room with live nude people of various ages. The presenter, a physician, is relaxed about close examination and touching of relevant body parts, including genitals. While the videos note that the age of consent in Norway is 16, abstinence is not emphasized. In a subsequent series for teens and young adults, real people were recruited to have sexual intercourse on TV as counterbalance to the unrealistic presentations in advertising and pornography. A 2020 episode of a
Danish TV show for children presented five nude adults to an audience of 11–13-year-olds with the lesson "normal bodies look like this" to counter social media images of perfect bodies. A 2009 report issued by the
CDC comparing the sexual health of teens in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States concluded that if the US implemented comprehensive sex education similar to the three European countries there would be a significant reduction in teen pregnancies, abortions and the rate of sexually transmitted diseases, saving hundreds of millions of dollars.
Depictions In fine art In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, impressionist painters depicted everyday life, which included scenes of nude
toddlers or older children swimming and playing. John Singer Sargent's painting of Neapolitan Children Bathing was done based upon sketches done while traveling. Spanish artist
Joaquín Sorolla (1863 – 1923) returned to his hometown of
Valencia frequently from 1899 to 1909 to paint beach scenes, also working in the open air. Generally, the boys up to adolescence were nude, while the girls beyond toddler age wore long dresses. Boys and girls talked and played without regard to the difference in clothing.
Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926) often painted domestic scenes, in particular mothers and children, the youngest being nude. {{Gallery | title=Childhood nudity in paintings
In public media (August 19, 1911) by
J. C. Leyendecker Until the late 20th century, nude children appeared in artwork, photography, advertisements, and film to evoke positive associations of innocence in childhood. The level of nudity considered socially acceptable to depict varied by medium.
Life routinely published modestly posed photographs of nude boys to illustrate articles on American life. A photograph of nude boys in a communal shower from a 1941 article on high schools included a caption indicating a perception of male communal nudity as symbolic of
social equality.
Family photographs For decades, parents have taken and shared photographs of their infants and young children naked, often while bathing. Some contemporary parents see such photos as records of ephemeral childhood innocence that are precious, while others view the practice as an intrusion on private behavior that can rapidly spread online. During the final decades prior to
digital photography, labs processing film photographs occasionally reported nude photography of children as possible evidence of child sexual abuse, with some charges being filed, but few sustained.
Sally Mann's 1992 book
Immediate Family includes nude photographs of her three children under the age of 10. Mann stated that she decided to include every aspect of everyday life on their family farm with her children's consent and advice from experts. She attributes any negative response to the book's publication coinciding with a moral panic over depictions of child nudity, combined with debate over government funding of the arts.
Mary Gordon criticized Mann, perceiving her work as sexualizing children despite its artistic merit. Mann responded that any sexual connotations came from the viewer, not the images. In her 2015 memoir
Hold Still, Mann recounts that during her own childhood in rural Virginia, she had resisted wearing clothes until the age of five.
In social media Meta policy prohibits nude images of children from its social platforms, citing the possibility of abuse by others. In 2014, Facebook removed a mother's photo of her two-year-old daughter showing her bare bottom, an image intended as a
parody of a
Coppertone ad from the 1950s. Pornography Child pornography laws in the United States (18 U.S. Code § 2251) prohibit the depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving any person under 18, although what constitutes "sexually explicit" depends upon interpretation. In the absence of explicit conduct, the determination of whether a particular image violates the laws results from speculation as to the intent of the creator and the response of the viewer. In 2010,
Project Spade convicted numerous Americans for possessing
child pornography that did not involve sexually explicit conduct, but instead included "
lascivious exhibition of the
genitals or
pubic area" of a minor. The
European Union also prohibits images of children that are sexualized. In recent years, the identification of
child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has led to the development of programs that use artificial intelligence to flag images that are then reviewed by humans before further action occurs. The advocacy organization
Electronic Frontier Foundation views these programs as a dangerous violation of the integrity of
end-to-end encryption, which promotes privacy in online communications.
Childhood exposure to nude images by Michelangelo Following a controversy over the inclusion of a photograph of
Michelangelo's David in a Florida school lesson, a survey was done of the general population. Seventy-five percent of Americans say they do not find the depiction of nudity in paintings and sculptures by classical artists to be problematic, and only 14% say they do. A smaller majority (55%) agreed when the question was whether children should view nudity in art. In a 2018 survey of predominantly white middle-class college students in the United States, only 9.98% of women and 7.04% of men reported seeing real people as their first childhood experience of nudity. Many were accidental, such as walking in on parents, and were more likely to be remembered as negative by women. A majority of both women (83.59%) and men (89.45%) reported seeing their first depictions of nudity in film, video, or other mass media. Only 4.72% of women and 2% of men reported seeing nude images as part of sex education. ==See also==