Should pornography be introduced to the curriculum?

[lauren]

Now, I'm certainly not saying lessons should be about how great porn is and that you should watch it etc
I'm saying; should there be lessons educating those 12+ (highschool in the UK/middleschool in US) about porn, what it is, why it's around, the negatives, positives and the differences to real life?
Or should porn not be introduced into schools because it means more kids will be exposed to it or want to try it?

 

[Slightly]

I don't think there's possibly any danger in exposing more children to porn. Everyone finds out about it some way and at some time that preventing it only works temporarily. Children would only benefit from learning about it in the ways you mentioned.

 

[Alan D]

It should be addressed in sex education (Which is lacking to begin with); not as its own separate topic.

 

[Shonna]

I agree with Alan, it should be addressed in Sex-ed, as should many things not abstinence based.
It could do a lot to unskew people's retarded perception of it.

 

[Kirk]

I agree with Alan and Shonna; it's a shame this hasn't already been done, because youngster's just end up with false expectations about what the real thing is like...at 'least from what I've seen.
That said, how they'd go about teaching them about it I don't know.

 

[Antigone]

I see no educational value in that whatsoever. Even in sex ed. I would see no educational value in that whatsoever.
Also, remembering what I do about HS, I can say that I really don't think most people would care about porn unless it involves getting off to it.
About the only real educational value it would have would telling people "oh, yeah, sex isn't like this at all in real life, so don't set your expectations that high" or something like that.
But it hardly seems worth it because I would think you'd have to see it in order to know what the teachers are talking about.

Putting myself in the mindset I was in back at that age I can tell you such a topic would have given me the major heebie-jeebies and I would have removed myself from that class regardless of any trouble I'd gotten in for it.
Putting myself in the mindset of a parent, it would make me vastly uncomfortable to know this was being taught at school.

But here's the way I see it, if enough people think it's a good idea to include, then make it optional. I mean when i was a kid and us girls got a sheet informing us that we could watch this video about puberty and crap, well we and our parents were given the option to opt-out of having us watch it. Happened every year too, for maybe 3 years. Some of the girls did opt-out of it, either because their parents wanted them too or because the girls wanted to. And we had to get our papers signed anyway, so the teachers knew for sure who was opting out or not. Me I didn't opt-out for that, but I mean it's not like we had a mandatory class that taught us all about puberty or anything, it was optional. That's how I think things like this should be handled.

Not as a matter of "should" but rather, "if enough people want to, could it become an optional class/lesson?"
See the former makes it practically mandatory while the latter is optional. This way it's not forcing it on anybody.

However, i still don't see any educational value in it. So I'm going with no and if it ever did happen, as in not optional but mandatory, then I'd be yanking my kid out of the public school system faster than a blink. Of course I'm probably not putting my kid in the public school system anyway, but that's beside the point...

 

[Riven]

Well, porn is fun because it's "forbidden". the moment you "legalize" it, it won't be as much fun. I mean , the concept of porn nowadays is illegal as it contains many things that "children" should not see... Like cumshots and all that nasty stuff....

No, definitely not.. Sexual education is alright.. They can explain cunninlingus and fellation meanings and even show videos... But the act itself no.

 

[Rawiyah]

I still don't see how it would be educational. Unless you were to say "Sex isn't really like this in real life", but you can just mention it and cover that in two seconds. It wouldn't actually help to show kids porn.

Porn is also very addictive, in a sense. I've known people who were very addicted to internet porn and the such. I think exposing a child to porn in middle school could just set them up to be addicted to it later.

Kind of like saying, let's do drug education by allowing children to try drugs and then when they see how bad they feel tell them, "To avoid this, don't do drugs".
You know? It's better to just TELL them, not SHOW them. If that makes sense.

 

[lauren]

Oh haha yeah I don't agree with showing porn at all. I just feel that there needs to be something in place to talk to kids about porn and the fact that its acting etc and the type of porn you should avoid; under 18/violence/rape etc.
I feel that too many young boys watch porn and expect their lives to be full with blonde big breasted women and to have sex with them everyday all day. Some girls may do the same and expect to be having sex with some 10" penises or something.
I know this isn't always the case, but there ARE some people who take it that way.

I just think they need to be told, hey what you do in your own time is up to you, however bearing in mind it's illegal to see it under 18, but you need to know that this this and this etc.

I worry that parents do not talk about this enough with their kids and that they need someone at school they can trust who they can talk to about all personal aspects of their lives which could often include porn.