"The loss of innocence"

I have a friend that has young children (3 of them, ages 11 through 15), and over the years that we have discussed them, the "loss of innocence" will come up, in varying contexts. It's one of those expressions that's thrown around a lot, but I suspect it means different things to different people, as opposed to just being a catch-all for "growing up".

I have my own notion what this means, in its essential form, but I'm curious as to how others would define it.

Thanks!

The loss of innocence for me is the day i was able to go into a bar with my friends and discover the big wide world when i hit 16 I was still underage, but with the help of makeup

Today though i think the children are losing their innocence far too early with the way they dress etc...We have new neighbours in the street and they have a baby and a little girl about 3 years old, and every afternoon i've seen something that i haven't seen for years. I watch her Mum and her go out for a walk, her Mum pushing the new baby in the buggy, and the little girl pushing her dolly in hers

To me it is around the age of 2 or 3 when kids start to say certain things with ulterior motives ..like my little cousin will try to say what I want to hear if he wants something from me. You can usually see the innocense in their eyes when they are babies.. And then another loss of innosense when they first go to kindergarden and realize try are not the center of the universe there is a whole group of other kids and they sort of have to fend for themselves. Yea i define the term as pretty early.

I guess I see the loss of innocence as taking off the rose-colored glasses that children, as a rule, see the world thru. As in, realizing that there are bad people in the world and that bad things happen to good people. Losing that naivete, to me, is a loss of innocence, and it can happen at anytime. You can be an adult and still have your innocence