The age of un-innocence

Her legs are endlessly long and thin; tousled locks fall sensually in waves around her shoulders, watery blue eyes bore right into your soul as she stares at you with a slight coy smile—she's Kristina Pimenova, nine year-old Russian fashion model (who's been modelling since she was three).

Feel like a pervert? This is definitely feeding ground for online violators. And who is really monitoring the 2,583,864 people that follow the 'world's youngest supermodel' on Facebook? Managed by her mother, ex-model Glikeriya Shirokova, Pimenova's social networking accounts are filled with images of her campaigns (that include Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Benetton, Cavalli); pouting and preening; bronzed cheeks and blowouts; long legs and luminous make-up. Much like French model Thylane Blondeau who seductively posed for French Vogue at the age of nine (in 2011), inviting backlash. Congratulations adults, from being protective we've gone to pushy, from sending children out to play, we're sending them to pageants. We're not allowing them to be precocious; we're encouraging it – treating them as tiny grown-ups.

Slut-shaming teenagers

Case in point, the Obama girls—who show up at the annual White House turkey pardoning ceremony wearing long-sleeved tops and bottoms that respectably cover their bottoms and receive this online barrage: "Dear Sasha and Malia, I get you're both in those awful teen years, but you're part of the First Family, try showing a little class. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar." Elizabeth Lauten, communications director for U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tennessee, decided their wardrobes deserved more comment than the ceremony, exposing them to the kind of bullying that adults in the limelight have had to deal with for years.

Coming out of the closet (at 13)

Brendan Jordon was first shot dancing suggestively Lady Gaga-esque, at the opening of a mall in America. The mini internet sensation now has a YouTube channel where he's posted a video titled, 'My coming-out story', where he discusses how soon after seventh grade, he 'just knew' he liked guys and couldn't fathom why 'gay' was used as insult – and decided he was 'going to break free from these chains' and reveal his sexual identity. American Apparel now features an ad with the teen wearing a t-shirt that proclaims 'Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride'.

The age of the downfall

I blame the adults. In trying to prepare children for life and success we're robbing them of a childhood. No matter how forceful and expressive a child, isn't it a parent's job to regulate their lives until they're old enough to know better? While often, grown-ups don't know better, how can we expect children too? And because of this acceleration into adulthood; suicide and depression; anxiety-related memory lapses and fear of failure; once largely adult-issues, have infiltrated childhood.

Humbert Humbert's obsession with his Lolita is deemed unnatural but today we live in a world that's idolising a flat-chested nine-year-old, slut-shaming young girls, and making an internet sensation of a self-aware teenage boy gyrating suggestively on national TV. Child-star syndrome is a rarity veering towards regularity, but will the rise of the planet of the mini-adults make childhood passé?

-Chandni Sehgal