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Commentators in the West have been proclaiming the death of childhood innocence for years, and yet our children – and even our teenagers – are more protected now than ever in history. Lucy Williamson looks at what we imagine innocence to be in the 21st Century, and how it is shaping childhood on opposite sides of the globe.

In the UK she speaks to philosophers, Theodore Zeldin and Onora O’Neil to explore how the concept has changed over time and to examine the ‘construction’ of Western notions of childhood. She also talks to Reg Bailey, the man responsible for a recent government-commissioned report on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.

At a temple, deep in South Korea’s southern forests, Lucy meets some young boys training to be monks and paying their respects to their elders. These hierarchical relationships of duty and respect still underpin Korea’s Confucian society, but this temple is now a retreat from the fast-paced modern life the children face outside its walls.

The North-east Asian country is the most wired nation on earth, and one company has developed a new iPad targeting children under the age of three. At the same time the school system is putting more and more pressure on boys and girls, and, according to some, depriving them of innocent play – a vital component of childhood.

(Photo: South Korean children wearing Santa Claus outfits at a fund raising campaign. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)