Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-201) and index.

"As widely known experts on the team that created this book explain, children begin formal education now in preschool. dress like adults, listen to the same music, play the same video games, explore the same Internet sites, and watch explicit depictions of sex and violence on TV and in movies." "What is the impact of immersing children in a sexualized world? The Sexualization of Childhood first explains the nature of healthy sexual development. It then explores the ways in which children are being sexualized, and the physical and psychological consequences. The book also looks at the lower and lower age at which girls are experiencing puberty, that reduction being fueled by the pseudoestrogens in so many of our foods and products, as well as by obesity. Finally, it examines what we can do - legally politically, and as caregivers - to protect children from developmentally inappropriate sexual experiences."--BOOK JACKET