Pornography, Kids And Sex Education: What To Do?Porn industry the main sex educator of kids, says child advocate By Daniel Schwartz
More kids at ever younger ages are accessing pornography online, according to a range of international studies, but there's not much consensus about what, if anything, should be done by parents or teachers to address the issue.
Today in Winnipeg, a children's advocacy group called Beyond Borders will host a symposium entitled "Generation XXX, the pornification of our children."
"The porn industry is the country's main sex educator of our boys and girls," says Cordelia Anderson, one of the experts scheduled to speak at the symposium, referring to the situation in the U.S.
"Young people have never had this ease of access to this type of material at this young of age," the founding president of the U.S. National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation told CBC Radio. "This alone should encourage us to be talking about it and studying it."
Cathy Wing, the co-executive director of Ottawa-based MediaSmarts, another conference speaker, says "we really need to talk to kids from an early age, before they become exposed to online porn."
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"Porn can have both negative and positive impacts," says Alice Gauntley, a sex education activist and a student in gender and sexuality studies at McGill University in Montreal.
"It can reinforce sexist, racist and transphobic stereotypes and give us unrealistic expectations about sex and our bodies. But it can also be a source of pleasure and a means of exploring our sexualities."
But for young teens with no sexual experience, processing the porn on their screens may be quite a challenge. Gauntley argues, "it is necessary to equip teens with the tools they need to make sense of the erotic material they might come across."
Sex educators are concerned that young people are getting the wrong picture about sex from viewing online pornography.
As Wing points out, "you're not going to get realistic portrayals in the pornography industry. It's a business; everything is constructed, like all media."
She advises teachers and parents to, "make sure the kids understand that this is not reflecting reality, that it's a constructed reality that contains bias and it's there to make money."
Fantasy, not reality
Sex therapist Wendy Maltz says that while kids have a sense that they should view pornography as fiction, she doesn't think they do.
"That takes a lot of high-order thinking to maintain that, especially under the influence of sexual arousal. It can start getting blurry when there's an excitement associated with it."
Maltz, author of The Porn Trap: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography, says "the image is the reality on the internet."
She adds that you won't stop young people's curiosity about sex, but that it's important for them to know that curiosity is normal. "It doesn't mean you're sick if you found this stuff exciting."
But it bothers Maltz that, because of the prevalence of pornography, "kids are getting robbed of having their own sexual conditioning come from real-life romantic experiences."
She would like to see kids start getting a healthy sex education before they start viewing pornography.
Getting educated about porn
The questions is where should young people get that education?
Linda Kasdorf is studying the impact of pornography on children and youth for her social work degree at the University of Regina, and she works at Saskatoon Christian Counselling Services. She says parents have the responsibility not only to protect kids from pornography, but also to educate them about sex.
"Sexual intimacy is totally missed when kids view porn, and there's no way to prepare them to understand that void."
Kasdorf argues when it comes to pornography, the education needs to begin with the adults. "Many parents have no idea that their children can even access pornography, they're that naive."
She adds that, "parents needs to be taught how to talk about pornography with their kids, how to help dissect experiences when kids are exposed to pornography."
But she also wants to see pornography become a component of school sex education programs. Those programs should ensure that, "kids actually have trusted adults that they can talk to about things they're curious about."
Gauntley would like to see a media literacy component on pornography, "because it encourages teens to be critical thinkers — to be able to recognize the differences between sex in porn and in real life."
