... a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no (or little) experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language.[1] Some feral children have been confined by people (usually their own parents); in some cases this child abandonment was due to the parents' rejection of a child's severe intellectual or physical impairment. Feral children may have experienced severe child abuse or trauma before being abandoned or running away. Others are alleged to have been brought up by animals; some are said to have lived in the wild on their own.
This, like the famous case of Genie, who spent almost all of her first thirteen years confined inside a room (discovered by authorities in 1970), is what people think when they hear the term "feral children.
So what is one to think about the following story in BBC News?
Most adults think children ‘are feral and a danger to society’
Public intolerance of young people has reached such levels that more than half of all adults think that British children are beginning to behave like animals, a poll has found.
The poll, commissioned by the children’s charity Barnardo’s, found that 49 per cent of adults regard children as increasingly dangerous both to each other and to their elders, while 43 per cent feel that “something has to be done” to protect society from children and young people.
. . .
More than half of the survey respondents (53 per cent) said that children were beginning to behave like animals and 45 per cent agreed that people refer to children as feral “because they behave this way”.
Mr Narey said it was appalling that words like “animal”, “feral” and “vermin” were now used daily in reference to children.
Using those words for lots of children is more than appalling. It dilutes our language and opens a crack where it is hard to make correct distinctions. People who exaggerate the language in this manner usually have a political agenda to push. Concern for the actual children is a distant second-place concern.
Sill, violent children is a serious problem. Look at this latest from BBC News:
Teenager attacked man with bottle
David Willis was attacked by the 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, after he refused to buy him alcohol in Plymouth, Devon.
The 24-year-old mechanic needed 37 stitches and plastic surgery.
The teenager was sentenced on Monday to 18-month's detention after pleading guilty to unlawful wounding.
