Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the mantra "The child is father of the man". Maria Montessori also said: "It is the child who makes the man, and no man exists who was not made by the child he once was." It is true that the experiences of childhood are brought through a person's life, but the impressions gained from beauty pageants are undesirable.

Development during childhood is so important. Ensuring healthy emotional and psychological development for children should be prioritised by parents, the State and all other stakeholders. The appointment of a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has shown how seriously the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, and the Government are taking the issue. Having a separate Department with responsibility for children has been mentioned throughout this debate.

The sexualisation of children has probably never been more pervasive than it is today with the advent of social media and widespread access to the Internet. Children are often exposed to online material that is unsuitable, which interferes with children's various stages of development.

The pageant business is the parents' own choice, however, so they cannot blame the Internet or anything else. Parents have a free choice to do this or not, but they should ask what it is doing to their children. That is the most important question any parent can ask.

Psychologists and development researchers have proposed a number of different theories to describe and explain processes and stages that children go through as they develop. Some psychologists tend to focus on development milestones or specific achievements, and others on specific aspects of child development such as personality, cognition and moral growth.

Many philosophers, including Piaget, Russo, Buckley, Montessori, Erikson and Freud have written about this matter. One small aspect concerns how we can develop and foster interpersonal relationships. The stage of moral development is focused on living up to social expectations and roles. Consideration must also be given to how choices influence relationships.

Psychologists have written about what pageants do as regards living up to social expectations and social roles. Parents have to make that choice. The child goes through a physical metamorphosis and should be allowed to develop naturally. Children do not need, and should not be exposed to, beauty pageants to make them look different. All stages of a child's development should be natural. Psychologists have outlined the various stages of such development but I will not go into them now.

The developments are sometimes so pronounced that one might think one was looking at a different child. In changing, children also go through a psychological metamorphosis in the way they learn to interpret the world. What this does to their psychological development has been written about in recent years.

Dr. Montessori used the example of the butterfly changing and growing beautiful naturally. We should let our children do the same. We must differentiate between acting, stage development, development of independence, confidence in partaking in events, and experiences that aid the development of independence and confidence.

I note that the Irish Dancing Commission has banned children from wearing wigs and fake tans. I welcome that. A child of mine won an all-Ireland Irish dancing competition in the years when there were no wigs or make-up. There was nothing other than talent, the preservation of culture and everything that goes with it. The three girls who won the three-handed reel in Irish dancing back then did not have wigs or make-up. Irish dancing should go back to what it was, which involves the preservation of Irish culture.

I hope that both organisations, the Irish Dancing Commission and An Comhdháil, have banned such things for children up to ten years of age. I could not contact An Comhdháil on the phone when I was trying to research the matter earlier, but I am sure it has done so.

We cannot equate Irish dancing and culture with beauty pageants. I would not like them to get mixed up, but parents have to make that choice. The Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, is doing a lot, as is the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, who will be introducing the sexual offences Bill later this year. I also wish to compliment the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs on the steps she has taken to curb retailing in this regard.

Evidence suggests that allowing children to compete in beauty pageants is damaging to their health and emotions. Dr. Syd Brown, a child and adolescent psychologist in the USA, affirms: "Not only do children who compete in pageants measure their self-worth by their looks, they are in for a downfall if they do not stay as beautiful when they grow up."

Many children who compete in beauty pageants and who focus on their looks, are liable to develop emotional problems.

Dr. Maria Cartwright, adjunct professor of nutritional science at the University of Arizona, has stated it is not uncommon for teenagers who compete in beauty pageants at very young ages to have eating disorders, a point raised by Senator van Turnhout. While I do not want to scare parents who are going to partake in beauty pageants, and as Senator van Turnhout said, it is not illegal and is a free choice, nonetheless, we should stress that free choice and exploitation are two different things. Free choice is one of the highest of all mental processes. Young children do not differentiate and parents should be educated on how, when and where children can participate. They should ask whether their child has developed the power of control, the power to say "No" and the power to differentiate between exploitation and free choice.