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Does it make sense to teach this to children? Just like "Smoking isn't good for your health."(which I believe worked for me) you could teach "Porn isn't good fo

• antihero 14y ago
  No, because that is ludicrous. A porn addiction is bad for you, but watching other people fuck isn't necessarily bad. Just like certain electronic components exhibit weird properties when taken to extreme levels, we wouldn't write off using op-amps because they go funky when abused.
• guard-of-terra 14y ago
  Porn is an instant pleasure. Enjoying sex in eight years (earlier if you're lucky but don't cross your fingers just yet) does not compare very well to that. I've never tried to smoke so I can't really compare.
  • illuminate 14y ago
    "Porn is an instant pleasure. Enjoying sex in eight years (earlier if you're lucky but don't cross your fingers just yet) does not compare very well to that" I'm glad you've discovered masturbation, but what does this have to do with the topic at hand?
• Skoofoo 14y ago
  It'd make more sense to go broader and teach that due to how our brains work, all pleasure becomes diluted the more we have. Therefore, it is desirable to avoid living in unrestricted excess, be it with drugs, sex, food, or what have you. One should have control over their pleasures, not the other way around.
  • barrkel 14y ago
    We have tested and tasted too much, lover-- Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder. But here in the Advent-darkened room Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea Of penance will charm back the luxury Of a child's soul, we'll return to Doom the knowledge we stole but could not use. (Advent, Kavanagh)
  • nikster 14y ago
    Nope. Sex gets better and better. Unlike drinking and drugs.
• lmm 14y ago
  I think the problem is our society's denigration of sex. We see it as consisting inherently of that mix of thrill and shame - when you're a teenager growing up in America, you're told to feel that way about any nudity, never mind penetration. So you come to associate arousal with this guilt - you never experience the one without the other - and then when you're looking for something to turn you on you're already feeling guilty, and there's a part of you that wants to. So you step a little deeper into the pool of fetishes, find something a little stronger (and I'm pleased that the author's actually given some realistic examples here), something that makes you feel guilty and ashamed and is all the more erotic for it. But the interest half-life for porn is tiny; what was dangerous boundary-pushing last week is pedestrian today. It's a feedback loop, one that can only possibly end somewhere unpleasant. The author's already found the solution - we need to separate sexuality from guilt and shame, to be able to feel aroused and wholesome at the same time. But it's hard to do that after you've already fallen down the spiral. We need to make our children's first experiences of arousal feel natural and wholesome - which means more openness, more embracing of sexuality in artforms that are going to portray it positively. But that's a hard sell to middle America.
  • rdtsc 14y ago
    > So you come to associate arousal with this guilt That's part of the puritanical and (maybe any religious) mind control. People need to feel guilty so they self-police themselves, and it also has to be something that is common (such as sex) so everyone is always guilty. Guilty people are vulnerable and easily controlled. This has to be planted early in the childhood, then it sort of becomes automatic and not that easy to unlearn. Even rationally if some admit there is nothing wrong with this or that, they'll still feel guilty -- it because it becomes part of their personality.
  • jimzvz 14y ago
    I think the problem is our society's denigration of sex. Is this really true anymore? It seems that the majority of the media consumed by young people carries the message that sex is extremely important and if you are not doing it with everyone in every way, you are brainwashed by religious or moral beliefs. Obviously there is denigration of sex from many sources but which of these sources actually have an impact on young people?
• readme 14y ago
  Is there any research that proves your claim: "Porn isn't good for you if you want to enjoy sex."? Porn has only made sex better for me.
  • FrojoS 14y ago
    Not that I know. Bad wording from my side, I was only thinking about teens (like the case of the author). Some day research might tell us, until then, you better avoid a risk to your child. I think Skoofoo is spot on.
  • nikster 14y ago
    I dont think it makes it better or worse at all, with the exception of certain girls who like to watch it to get in the mood in which case its certainly a force for the better. Putting the "its not good for you" label on it also makes it immediately more interesting than it should be. Increases the guilty pleasure and so on. The guy in the article - maybe he would have erectile problems never having watched porn too. Performance anxiety is normal. One thing I am sure about: The cure for bad sex is lots of sex.
  • simplify 14y ago
    It seems that there is: http://yourbrainonporn.com/why-do-i-find-porn-more-exciting-partner http://yourbrainonporn.com/why-do-i-find-porn-more-exciting-...
    • ntumlin 14y ago
      I'm sure that site has no bias what so ever.
      • jrockway 14y ago
        You know you've chosen the right side of an argument when everyone one the other side links to a single quack website backed up by anecdotes from "An Internet User".
        • 14y ago
• cbs 14y ago
  It makes sense, if taught properly. But I would expect this to be yet another thing taught with the "daddy knows best" attitude that speaks in simplistic absolutes to make sure they instill their desired outcome rather than share a proper perspective with plenty of nuance and hope that the children come to the same conclusions as the person teaching. That is a very dangerous road to take. It depends on the message being correct, and the child to never rebel from that message when they wise up to the fact they weren't given the full picture and never succumb to their desires. For me, in this day and age, its really hard to say one way or the other. How poorly done and/or wrong will it be, and is having it done that way better than nothing? I can't know, but I suspect that with societal attitudes on sex, "some porn is fine, how much is too much is different for everybody and here's how to tell where the line is" is too complicated of a message to effectively communicate. If it is even allowed to be communicated at all. Don't forget widespread acceptance of "abstinence only" rubbish isn't far behind us, I'm reminded of this every time I visit family in the South and see the big labels on every gas station condom dispenser reminding me that the only real way to avoid HIV/AIDS is monogamy and abstinence before marriage. Whereas growing up in the North, we didn't even have those dispensers. I suspect their presence is related to the greater taboos about sex in those areas, but in the north I was never scared away from buying rubbers at the counter when I was young.
• illuminate 14y ago
  "you could teach "Porn isn't good for you, if you want to enjoy sex."" I try not to lie to children, if at all possible.