Children Are Innocent/Playing With

Basic Trope: Children are innocents in need of adult protection and are never evil.

Played Straight: Nine-year-old Cindy is very naïve and would never think to deliberately harm someone.
Exaggerated: Cindy still wears a diaper and speaks in Baby Talk. See Kiddie Kid.
Downplayed: Cindy would hurt someone, but not severely and only for childish reasons.
Justified: Children's minds are still developing, as is their understanding of the world.
Inverted: Adults Are Useless.
Subverted: Cindy is an Enfant Terrible who plays the part of a Deliberately Cute Child.
Double Subverted: This was caused by Demonic Possession and the real Cindy is innocent.
Deconstructed: Bob knows that Cindy is evil and a threat to society, but no one takes him seriously since it looks like he's just picking on an innocent child.
Reconstructed: Cindy is found to be disturbingly capable of great crimes. She's not considered truly responsible because she's a child and she's successfully rehabilitated through therapy.
Parodied: Everyone is as innocent as a three-year-old until the second they turn eighteen.
Lampshaded: "How could you hurt Cindy, Bob?! She's only nine!"
Zig Zagged: At times, Cindy seems surprisingly worldly, but there are also those moments which remind you she's still a kid.
Averted: Cindy is no more innocent than the adult characters.
Enforced: "The Moral Guardians will hurt us if we don't make Cindy happy and innocent."
Invoked: Alice ensures that Cindy stays innocent by only letting her watch G-rated movies and so forth.
Defied: Alice trains Cindy to be a Little Miss Badass so that she'll be able to fend for herself in a harsh world.
Discussed: "We can't let Cindy be exposed to this because it'll ruin her development."
Conversed: "Why is Cindy just sitting there when they need as many people as possible to pull on the rope? She should be able to handle that even if she's just a kid."
Played For Laughs: Cindy says the darndest things.
Played For Drama: Cindy must be protected from a villain who Would Hurt a Child.

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