Thanks to an article in the newspaper, I discovered a website for teens that's all about sex: Scarleteen.com
It seems to exist for educational purposes - it's not porn - but a quick glance confirms that it's got both breadth and depth.
As an educator, I guess I'm all for anything educational - and this certainly is. I'm glad there are resources out there for teens, so that they aren't just listening to their friends (like we did!) As a parent, it makes me grateful that I am able to talk about stuff like this with my kid, though this website probably knows more than I do.
But the flip side is that our culture has become so hyper-sexualized that there is a serious need for a website like this - and I guess that's what bugs me. Kids see sex everywhere - they can't even walk around the mall without seeing Victoria's Secret - and that + hormones is a pretty combustible combination!
An article in yesterday's paper is not unrelated - called "A million young women never forgot the babies they were forced to surrender" - it looks at baby boomer women who were forced (by their families) to give up babies in the years before abortion became legal. The implication that they were too incompetent to be mothers scarred many of them for years.
What's the connection?
a) Kids need to know about birth control, because they're going to have sex whether you like it or not
b) Sex has multiple unintended consequences, so kids had better be informed
c) It's not just a rebellious behavior - even the "good" kids will do it, so better to be helpful than to judge
d) All of the above!
So sure, we all wish kids would just wait until they're adults to have sex (ha!) but we're also realistic enough to know that ain't gonna happen. Thus, Scarleteen.
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