Biologically, a child plural children is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty , [1] [2] or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. They are classed as unable to make serious decisions, and legally must be under the care of their parents or another responsible caregiver. Child may also describe a relationship with a parent such as sons and daughters of any age [4] or, metaphorically, an authority figure , or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties". Biologically, a child is a person between birth and puberty, [1] [2] or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". The term child may also refer to someone below another legally defined age limit unconnected to the age of majority. In Singapore , for example, a child is legally defined as someone under the age of 14 under the "Children and Young Persons Act" whereas the age of majority is

This story was produced in partnership with Epic Magazine. I got my first pubic hair when I was 2 years old. Or so they tell me. I have no recollection of a time before puberty, before the carnal cravings, the impulses, the angst and anger and violence. There was no prelapsarian age of innocence for me; I was born, I took a huge bite of the apple, and, by 2 years old, I was pretty much ready to get busy with Eve.

This paper analyses how, prior to the work of Sigmund Freud, an understanding of infant and childhood sexuality emerged during the nineteenth century. Whereas the homological interpretation was favoured by the majority of commentators, including Moll, Freud, and to some extent also by C. Around , a heightened interest in the sexuality of children emerged.