Analyst Tim McCarver calls the Philly Phanatic "The best mascot in baseball." However, former Slim-Fast pitchman and ex Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda hates him. On being in the Phanatic costume Tom Burgoyne, who has had the role since 1993, says "I feel like I'm reliving my childhood." However, the Philly Phanatic is not always the funniest thing happening at Citizens Bank Park.
posted by Mayor Curley on Sep 17, 2009 - 63 comments

SafetyTat- Temporary tattoos designed designed to be used as identification devices for children. Includes several designs for non-verbal and autistic children. Via That's Fit.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Apr 12, 2008 - 48 comments

I took my video camera to a Foster Care Alumni meeting and asked seven foster kids to tell me about there experiences in Child Protective Services while wards of the state: Tristen, Andrew, Kyle, Aisha, Elnita, Ashley, Joshua. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Dec 29, 2007 - 22 comments

Having sex at 12 is a bad idea. But if you're pubescent, it might be, in part, your bad idea. Slate rethinks the age of consent.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 27, 2007 - 89 comments

"Oh, someday, when I am Miss America, I'll tell the world to make things start when you're young. And what fun, it's gonna be, when Regis sings his song to me." In 2001, the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Living Dolls captured child beauty pageants of the South in a post-Jon Benet world. Parts 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 [Update inside.]
posted by miss lynnster on Jun 4, 2007 - 66 comments

In 1982, ten-year old Samantha Smith from Maine wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov asking whether there was going to be a nuclear war. Andropov responded, and Samantha accepted his invitation to stay at a Russian pioneer camp with Soviet children. Tragically, within the following two years both the young Samantha and Secretary Andropov passed away. (wmv)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Dec 23, 2006 - 23 comments

A map of sex offenders in YOUR neighborhood. People can change, and mistakes can be redeemed, but then again, looking at map of colored dots in my own neighborhood kind of gives me the creeps.
posted by JWright on Feb 11, 2006 - 68 comments

Sports Illustrated explains seven or eight professional soccer/football teams, including highly regarded Manchester United and FC Porto, are interested in "a phenomenon, probably the best player to come out of Brazil" : Jean Carlos Chera, nine years old and 4' 6". A video (additional source) [wmv format, 8MB] demonstrates Jean's abilities.
posted by quam on Jan 27, 2005 - 46 comments

ODD. Indeed.
posted by magullo on Jan 22, 2003 - 55 comments

Is this naturism, photography or soft-core child pornography? If you search for photographers like Sally Mann or Jock Sturges you'll come across this entirely legitimate purveyor of naturist books and videos. In the Fifties and Sixties nudist magazines, like Health and Efficiency, were an excuse for looking at naked bodies. Now that porn is legal, have nudist publications made a comeback as an excuse for looking at photographs of naked children? Their website is itself well concealed - the front page looks innocent enough but, the further you click into it, the more unsettling it becomes. Or are we all becoming to paranoid for our own good? (I'd say NSFW)
posted by Carlos Quevedo on Nov 9, 2002 - 110 comments

Another child-bakes-in-car story, but this one is especially heartbreaking: single mother trying to keep her temp job has no child care for her developmentally disabled daughter and leaves her in the car out of desperation. Every summer there's a rash of these cases, with some eliciting more hatred and disgust than others. What gives -- the general decline of parenting/morals/personal responsibility, or should we get serious about child care in the land of "family values"? (Thanks to Jim Romenesko.)
posted by serafinapekkala on Oct 3, 2002 - 41 comments

A 9-year-old girl has been arrested on sex charges, perhaps the youngest suspect ever to face such charges in Manchester, local police say. [...] The alleged incident occurred in the fall, when the girl and three other children a 3-year-old boy and two girls, 4 and 5 were playing in a bedroom, [Police Sgt. John] Maston said. The girl is charged with initiating sex between the younger children and then with her, Maston said. (From Boston.com, via Billy Wildhack.) I admit I don't have all the facts, but it seems like this little girl's life about to be ruined because a game of Doctor went out of hand.
posted by RylandDotNet on Jan 12, 2002 - 46 comments

Microsoft is hoarding child prodigies in order to breed the next Bill. You heard me.
posted by tweebiscuit on Aug 2, 2001 - 20 comments