Traditionally, the law has treated children not as individuals with legal standing equal to that of adults but as the property of their parents or the state. When viewed as property, children have no rights to self-determination.

In earlier times, children were viewed as an economic asset. Families often depended upon their children's labor for survival. In 19th-century England and in North America children were treated in much the same way as farm animals. They could be placed in servitude, beaten and, if they consistently disobeyed, even killed by their parents.

Though communities did occasionally condemn parents for cruel treatment of their children, the children themselves had no legal standing to complain about maltreatment. Indeed, some of the first child protection cases in both England and America were brought by societies organized to prevent cruelty to animals. No child protection societies existed in the U.S. or in Britain before the latter half of the 19th century.

Abused and neglected children still cannot directly petition the court for protection. Child protection agencies and the courts typically make decisions in what they believe to be the best interests of the child. The child is often consulted but has little recourse if he or she disagrees with a decision.

Recent decisions by the United States Supreme Court have established that children do have some legal standing under the Constitution. Tinker v. Des Moines, for example, held that children have a right to free speech under the First Amendment. Still, the relationship between children under the age of legal majority and their parents is heavily tilted in favor of parents.

Some child advocates favor treating children and adults equally under the law. Others believe parents need legal power in order to protect children adequately from their own immature judgments. In the United States, courts and lawmakers have attempted to give children a status above that of property but below that of parents.

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