In a study released from
Psychology Today, researchers say no.
Journalist Michael Castleman
writes:
Before the Internet, that is pre-1995s, hardcore pornography was difficult for teens to obtain. Today, with a few clicks, millions of photos and videos are available for free to anyone. This change has triggered great anguish among social conservatives, who wring their hands that the current generation of teens is coming of age in a world awash in X-rated imagery that's sweeping them down a sewer of filth.
Unfortunately for social conservatives, the tendency for teens to be involved in sex-based criminal or harmful behaviors has shown a corresponding decrease as teens are becoming accustomed to pornographic content around them.
Interestingly, I was having a discussion today with a friend about how we in the
United States acknowledge (or refuse to acknowledge) the sexual identities/activities of children. Here, we have a hard enough time coming to terms with our social hangups about
adult sexual behavior and identification issues. With kids, forget it.
On the one hand, U.S. children are denied - certainly legally - any sexuality that they control until they reach the magic age of 18. When that day comes, Voila!, they are suddenly complete sexual beings. This aproach is fundamentally unfair to children and denies the reality that children do, in fact, form sexualities - and act on them - long before age 18. Sometimes this is good; at other times, it may not be. However, adults recognizing and allowing this natural growth process to occur in a healthy way for a child is essential to good upbringing for children. It is not an endorsement of
NAMBLA.
Yet, accusations of child molestation are leveled whenever one breathes a word about relaxing sexual standards or rules for children. This charge is one charge that, under our system in the U.S., one truly is "guilty until proven innocent." Of course, the "
child molester" mantra has been particularly potent against gay men, despite overwhelming evidence showing that heterosexual males are the most common sexual abusers of children and usually children they are related to.
Nevertheless, because of such baseless accusations, gay youth are often denied even mentoring relationships with adult gay men because the adults are, frankly, scared to be in that situation. When I lived in
San Francisco in the early to mid-1990s, I knew of one youth charity that openly lamented about their difficulty in getting adult gay men to volunteer to help gay youth. When one considers the fact that gay youth often commit suicide because they are made to feel so isolated and abnormal, further isolating them from accepting and understanding adults is absolutely tragic.
This study in Psychology Today confirms a theory I have long held. Exposing youth to sexuality, even graphic images, does not - in itself - produce the tried and true negative results social conservatives roll out on this issue like clockwork whenever sex and kids comes up. In fact, there is strong evidence that exposure produces the opposite result. Teens adjust to a world with pornography and diverse sexual expression, and in some ways, become anesthetized to it.
U.S. teens may be growing more like the youth of some other countries in the world that have lower ages of consent (some very low, like 13) and, in general, have more broad-minded and accepting views of
human sexuality. I have traveled in some of those countries. Despite scare tactics that mask as fact here, in those other countries children weren't standing on every street corner giving out blow jobs to 80-year old men. Nor did they fill the gay bars and clubs. Abuse and inappropriate manipulation of children didn't flow like water from relaxed sexual attitudes. Certainly, it happened in particular cases. Unfortunately, the place where kids are at greatest risk - at least in "civilized countries" - is right here in the U.S.
The place supposedly trying to "protect" kids.
When it comes to sexuality in youth, we ignore basic parenting 101: Only when a parent labels something as illicit, bad or forbidden will a child -
especially boys - take a sudden interest in it. Until we stop that ridiculous tendency, the U.S. will remain a country where, legally, a teen girl cannot "consent" to
sexual intercourse (in most cases) until age 18. Yet, she can go to the neighborhood women's clinic (if she's lucky enough to live close to one) and (with varying hurdles) consent to an abortion to abort the fetus that she couldn't legally consent to creating in the first place.
If that isn't one of the most fucked up things you will ever hear about U.S. law and society, then you aren't listening. Sadly, that is the way the U.S. handles sexuality in youth. And, considering the title of one "related article" suggested by
Zemanta (below), we are not progressing that quickly toward more enlightened methods.
I strongly encourage you to read the article from Psychology Today.
