JEYAA! Final; Children’s Rights

There is a young girl who, only at the tender age of 11, has faced a lot of hardships and been left out of a lot of things, like not being able to order the same food as everyone else because of her age, and at an amusement park for kids at that. She has also been limited in her choice of apparel when wanting to go out into public by her parents even if her fashion choices were appropriate, stylish, and to her liking and comfort as well as situational appeal. After hearing this story, one might ask, are what individual freedoms being protected for kids and which ones should be?

This young girl name is Giana Ricco, and this tragic event went down at Universal Studios, Orlando, a very popular amusement park for kids of all ages, so why was she prevented from ordering a burger because she was too young? Was it too big? Who knows? All that is known is that she wanted that bigger burger because the smaller one from the kids menu was too small and she was starving to eat. “…when we went to Universal Studios and I couldn’t order the adult burger because they had a rule where only 12+ could order from it.” So she had to eat the smaller burger and hope that it would be enough to suffice her hunger.

My take on this is that I believe there to be certain instances where boundaries between what a kid and an adult can do need to be kept and re-enforced, but over little things that end up being part of a bigger constitutional problem like the limiting what can and can’t be worn even though it isn’t inappropriate or uncalled for in the context it’s trying to be used. How Giana is being limited by the adults around her is clear to me after hearing her answer my questions during our interview. She was taken advantage of since she doesn’t know any better and decided her parents were right and that a kid couldn’t decide this or do that. But in reality, age doesn’t play a factor when discussing natural rights. It shouldn’t at least, but many want to dodge around terms like constitutional rights and natural rights because they feel that their age immediately validates them to limit a child as they please.

Everyone is given a set of rights at birth known as birthrights, and those are our natural human rights that are to be upheld. Such is like the promise to our freedom, liberty, expression of self, and more. When a kid is being told they cannot wear what they want when going out to eat with friends and family even if it is the most ergonomic and pretty but appropriate outfit possible with the reasoning being the same all the time ““You’re still a child, so wait until you’re an adult to wear whatever you want””. What you just read was a violation of our natural rights being born as US citizens. If our government is not protecting these rights and the bending of these rights has now since been normalized for so long that the line between rights and restrictions has ever since been hazed, not only is the outdated ideology of some parents wrong, but so is our fundamental government system when children’s rights are put in question over their sanctity. Birth rights among other fundamental constitutional rights are the bare minimum a child should possess, and they are. They are promised to every citizen young or old which is great, however the problem lies in them not being protected

Limiting human rights has and is been continued to be called the norm for how a child should be limited for many years now, always because of insufficient age equalling apparent lack in ability or knowledge, therefore an authoritative, older figure should step in to make some decisions for the child. That is nice and all, but only if the child agrees and even then, you are only to make decisions for them, not limit them of their human rights! This is still a common ideology that many adults share, but our constitutional rights need to be upheld as they are ours, not our parents or any of the other adults in our lives. This isn’t telling you to hate adults, what is to be taken away is that no one will defend us before we start defending ourselves. Whenever there is a personal problem affecting you, the first to know about it is, well, YOU. So search up and dive deeper into what your personal rights are so you can stay informed and notified if unjust limiting is being set in front of you by an adult. Staying informed is a great weapon that has been made easy thanks to the internet. Remember that above being a child, you are a human same as any adult that has the same fundamental rights as they do. Giana Ricco has learned this, and has since felt a little more prepared if these situations were to arise again.