The Middle Distance

I think it's aprotective mechanism - for the parents. Losing your innocence, however necessary, is painful, and for many people, watching a child lose his/her innocence brings back their own painful memories, which they don't want to relive. So they insist on "protecting the children" to avoid dealing with their own pain, never mind the fact that in the long run, they are increasing the pain the child will go through. (I suspect a loss of innocence at age 14 is much tougher to take than a similar loss at age 8 or 9. School-age children seem to "roll with the punches" better.)