I don't think it's being forced on them, but I'm also not sure all the info they're (or anyone else, for that matter) encountering online is necessarily balanced and accurate. Are you sure nobody on the internet or anywhere else is sending the message that trandgender people need SR surgery and meds?
And you still continue to persist in this nonsense. This situation existed long before the Internet, it was just quietly suppressed by an intolerant society.
Why does it matter if anyone is "sending the message"? Do you think that these young adolescents can just pop out to the local clinic and get hormone therapy and surgery any time they feel like it?
ANY transperson,
regardless of age, who is even remotely contemplating SRS is required to get literal
years of therapy before they are even eligible to be considered for SRS.
That is the reason for puberty-delaying hormone treatment for preteen adolescents who believe that they may be trans. To delay irreversible pubertal development while the individual undergoes therapy to determine if they will be proceeding on the path to transitioning. If they come to the realization that they are not trans, but something else, then the treatment can be stopped, and puberty proceed as normal.
I get the sense that a lot of people are operating under the assumption that being transgender is just like being gay, straight, or bisexual, where if that's how you self-identify at 13 or 16, that's it - you're almost definitely going to be that or some variant of it for life.
That is a straw man if your own creation; but the actual science is not far off of that position. Studies indicate that gender identity, like sexual preference, is fixed at a very young age; but that complex cultural factors can affect
awareness of of that identity. This is particularly true for older generations, who did not have available to them the sort of information and supportive communities and organizations that are available now.
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla....s-13-to-17-identify-as-transgender-in-the-us/
http://www.kuow.org/post/when-do-kids-know-they-re-transgender-younger-youd-think
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749/
An excerpt from that last article:
There is no shortage of information available for parents trying to navigate this difficult terrain. If you read the bible of medical and psychiatric care for transgender people—the Standards of Care issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (Wpath)—you’ll find an 11-page section called “Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Gender Dysphoria.” It states that while some teenagers should go on hormones, that decision should be made with deliberation: “Before any physical interventions are considered for adolescents, extensive exploration of psychological, family, and social issues should be undertaken.” The American Psychological Association’s guidelines sound a similar note, explaining the benefits of hormones but also noting that “adolescents can become intensely focused on their immediate desires.” It goes on: “This intense focus on immediate needs may create challenges in assuring that adolescents are cognitively and emotionally able to make life-altering decisions.”
As a personal anecdote, I was aware from a very young age that I was "different', not quite the same as my peers; but I lacked any sort of referents for identifying and understanding what that difference was. I grew up in an evangelical Christian family and culture, and wasn't aware that transpeople even existed, let alone that I could have been one of them. Hell, I even the idea of homosexuality was little more than a mysterious boogeyman until I was well into my teens, and I started to gain access to information from sources outside my family and the religious community we were ensconced in. I practically lived in the local library, and that was how I discovered that there were sexualities and gender-identities other than the cisgendered heterosexuality enforced by the culture I grew up in. Had I had that sort of information earlier, I'm certain I would have understood what I was much earlier.
Now, with the advent of the Internet and its almost-unfettered access to information on nearly everything, it's much easier for younger people to acquire that information and develop those referents aside from cultural pressures, and understand better who they are.
