As is known, the term requiem (of Latin origin) is linked to the eternal rest of the soul of a deceased person: "Requiem aeternan dona eis, Domine" (grant them eternal rest, Lord). It has been topic of sublime musical compositions, such as, for example, Mozart's requiem, and Verdi's requiem.

The progressive loss of the age of innocence in our pseudo-liberal society, would it not be a good topic to compose a requiem, referring not to the deceased, but to the living who regret not having had a childhood?

Narodowski argues that media culture is giving rise to new children's identities, such as, for example, that of the "hyper-realized childhood": children are going through a vertiginous infancy period thanks to new technologies, acquiring an instrumental knowledge superior to that of many adults.

Today's children feel self-sufficient; they believe that they do not need adults' financial aid for information, since they can learn everything from the computer. This attitude can create unprecedented behavioral problems. For example: attention deficit, hyperactivity, anxiety and social phobia.

At what age is it advisable for children to start using digital devices? Parents who allow it from the age of five would be astonished to learn that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs only allowed their children to use them from the age of 12 onwards, because they considered that it could do them a lot of harm. They preferred children to read and play.

Today's childhood is often less innocent and happy than the one nostalgically evoked by Antonio Machado in his poem "Portrait" (1906):

"My childhood are memories of a courtyard in Seville,/ and a clear orchard where the lemon tree grew."

Many years later the poet evoked her again in his last verse, found by chance in a crumpled piece of paper in his pocket, after his death in exile in Colliure: (1939) "These blue days, and this sun of childhood".

It is important to clarify that childhood is the stage of "being-a-child", and not that of "not-yet-being-an-adult". We are witnessing the return of an old myth that seemed to have been overcome: that of the child as a miniature (or scale) adult. The fact that the child has a personality of its own, different from that of the adult, is once again being ignored. It is also forgotten that the essence of childhood is innocence.

The innocence proper to small children is the absence of malice. They do not yet know deceit or dissimulation; they are simple and trusting; they have a continuous desire to know, as is test their insatiable curiosity, which arises around the age of four, with the age of the "whys". Not answering their questions (for parental convenience) is to kill that curiosity, which will have serious consequences for their future life.

Childhood innocence does not correspond to the prejudices of many adults, who see it as ignorance, immaturity, and naivety, which must be corrected as soon as possible, (despite the fact that children are reluctant to abandon the beliefs that nestle in their fantasy).

A five-year-old boy is told by a ten-year-old classmate at high school that there is no such thing as the Three Wise Men. The first one, undeterred, replies: "Well, my mother does, and she's 40".

The state of ignorance must be overcome, while innocence is a timeless value to be protected throughout life. One can be innocent and very experienced at the same time.

New technologies enhance valuable skills applicable to learning, but if misused or abused, they can curb some of the talents needed to grow harmoniously, including imagination.

Filmmaker Robert Redford, after retiring, dedicated himself to promote and directed films only for children, moved by the nostalgia of lost childhood. He justified it this way: "Childhood is a world of magic. I want to recover that magic that is being obscured by technology, awakening the child in me".

Awakening the inner child is an exciting task for everyone at all ages of life. Antonio Machado proposed a permanent dialogue with the man within each one of us.