Part one of two

September 2010 – How crazy is the school committee in Provincetown, Massachusetts? Crazy enough to institute a policy whereby condoms could be distributed to all students – including those of elementary age – whether or not parents approve.

After a public outcry following the new policy – even Gov. Deval Patrick complained – the school committee backtracked. In early July, members decided to limit the free condoms to students fifth grade and up, although parents still could not interfere.

But that’s just crazy ol’ Massachusetts, right? After all, Provincetown is an extremely liberal enclave in the midst of an already very liberal state.

It’s happening elsewhere – like Shenandoah, Iowa, for example. According to Fox News, a co-ed sex education class for eighth graders in that community demonstrated how female exams are performed, how to properly use a condom, and some of the sexual positions that kids could use during sex.

And in Helena, Montana, a proposal to teach “comprehensive sex education” throughout all 12 grades caused an uproar in that city. The curriculum dictated that by the end of first grade students should understand that homosexuality was as normal as heterosexuality. By the end of the fifth grade, students should understand “that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration.” And by the end of the following year kids should know that such sexual activity includes “using the penis, fingers, tongue or objects.”

Hicks versus Harvard?
What’s going on? The short version is that the sexual revolution continues to sweep away traditional morality and its supports. While it would be bad enough for the traditional view of sexuality to be simply ignored in our culture, the situation is even worse. A hedonistic view of sex is being spoon fed to our children in many schools, on TV and online. Kids are, in effect, being brainwashed about sex.

Involved in many of the school controversies over sex that erupt every year is Planned Parenthood Federation of America. According to Fox News, for example, PPF helped prepare the curriculum in Montana, and in Iowa, the sex education class was taught by a PPF representative.

Jennifer Horner, a spokesperson for the Iowa PPF group, told a newspaper that the graphic material was justified. “We are not trying to keep any of this a secret,” Horner said. “All information we use is medically accurate and science based.”

This is a typical approach taken by the purveyors of sex education in schools, according to psychiatrist Miriam Grossman. In her book You’re Teaching My Child What? she exposes the lies taught to children under the guise of sex education. She said groups like Planned Parenthood and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States regularly defend their work by claiming to be science based.

She said these groups “claim neutrality and successfully portray the conflict [over graphic sex education] as religious right versus medical facts, hicks versus Harvard.”

But that’s not true, Grossman said. She insisted that what’s called “comprehensive sexuality education” is in reality nothing more than “pseudoscience and crackpot ideology.”

The main prophets of the sexual revolution – sexologist Alfred Kinsey, PPF founder Margaret Sanger, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and others – had an agenda, according to Grossman.

“These 20th-century crusaders were passionate about social change, not health,” she said. “Their goal was a cultural revolution, not the eradication of [sexually-transmitted] disease.”

This crusade mentality comes out clearly in a 2010 pamphlet published by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation, titled Healthy, Happy and Hot: A Young Person’s Guide to their Rights, Sexuality and Living with HIV.

If PPF simply wanted to protect kids from unwanted pregnancy and STDs, then why include this statement: “Sexual and reproductive rights are recognized around the world as human rights. … There is no right or wrong way to have sex. Just have fun, explore and be yourself! Remember it’s your body. You choose what you do, when you do it, how and with whom.”

That statement is replete with moral judgments and makes a clear case against not only traditional morality, but also against the influence of parents, clergy or others who advocate sexual restraint.

Like the controversies in Montana, Iowa and elsewhere, the PPF pamphlet declares all sexual activity a good thing. Masturbation, “aggressive sex,” carrying out sexual fantasies, talking “dirty” to one’s sex partner, anal sex and more – it’s all included in a handout for kids. As long as sex is consensual and “safe” – i.e., using condoms and other forms of birth control – it is to be enjoyed by children and teens.

So what’s wrong with protecting kids against STDs? You’re Teaching My Child What? builds a strong case against the education strategies of PPF, SIECUS and other groups, but one argument stands out. It is something that most parents would probably know intuitively: Teens aren’t finished growing up. Yet the Planned Parenthood approach to teen sex wrongly presumes mature and rational decision-making by adolescents.

“Give adolescents information, [PPF and SIECUS] promise, provide them with condoms and pills, and they’ll make smart decisions,” Grossman said. “But [researchers using magnetic resonance imaging] show that during highly charged moments, teen brains rely on gut feelings, not reason. In other words, it’s not ignorance causing all those pregnancies and infections; it’s the unfinished wiring between brain cells.”

Looking at the statistics, kids are paying the price. Grossman said that, according to the American Social Health Association, one out of every two sexually active youth will be infected by a sexually transmitted disease (STD) by the time they turn 25.

Small screen, big problems
Matters are only made worse by prominent sources of teen entertainment, such as television, which help inflame the sexual passions of adolescents.

A study conducted by researchers at the Children’s Hospital Boston found that the younger kids started watching adult television programming containing sexual subject matter – and the more often they did so – the higher their risk for becoming sexually active as teenagers.

According to USA Today, for every hour of such programming kids (age 6 to 8) watched, there was a 33% increased risk they would begin having sex in their adolescent years.

Dr. Hernan Delgado, a pediatrician who carried out the study, said: “Television and movies are among the leading sources of information about sex and relationships for adolescents.”

What is that information source telling kids? The same thing as PPF and SIECUS: Sex is fun. Ignore your parents, pastor or priest, and do what you want.

Once again, however, kids are not adults. Study co-author Dr. David Bickham said, “Adult entertainment often deals with issues and challenges that adults face, including the complexities of sexual relationships. Children have neither the life experience nor the brain development to fully differentiate between a reality they are moving toward and a fiction meant solely to entertain. Children learn from media, and when they watch media with sexual references and innuendos, our research suggests they are more likely to engage in sexual activity earlier in life.”

Wild, wild Web
Sexed-up television is mild, however, compared to the Internet, a technological version of the wild, wild West where pornography is nearly ubiquitous.

A study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2007 reported that “42% of youth Internet users 10 to 17 years of age saw online pornography in the past year, and two-thirds of those reported only unwanted exposure.”

The researchers, from the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, said that for those who had experienced unwanted contact with online porn, the exposure came primarily through “links to pornography sites that came up in response to searches or misspelled Web addresses or through links within Web sites, pop-up advertisements, and spam e-mail.”

Many researchers are worried that young people exposed to Internet porn may suffer significant and deleterious effects, according to the Pediatrics study. These negative consequences include the “undermining of accepted social values and attitudes about sexual behavior, earlier and promiscuous sexual activity, sexual deviancy, sexual offending, and sexually compulsive behavior.”

Dr. Sharon Cooper, a forensic pediatrician and faculty member at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine, told the Washington Times, “Imagery definitely affects children. Adult pornography is a good example of giving children unhealthy sexual images.”

Cooper said pornography normalized behavior that is harmful, such as unprotected sex and even violent rape. On a more fundamental level, porn presented sex as an act devoid of loving – or even emotional – commitment.

Citing the American Psychological Association, the Times article said that, in just the last 12 years, girls under age 18 had changed in the way in which they viewed themselves. They were now beginning to see themselves solely in terms of sexual value.

“When a child sees herself only as a sexual object, she is no longer able to demand the kind of respect she deserves,” Cooper said. “The new definition of ‘love’ these days is sending a sexually explicit picture.”

 Researchers are also finding evidence that boys are trained by consuming pornography to disrespect women.

Dr. Michael Flood, a sociologist at La Trobe University’s Australian Research Center in Sex, Health and Society, said, “There is compelling evidence from around the world that pornography … is a very poor sex educator because it shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance. Often it is quite callous and hostile in its depictions of women.”

It’s clear that adults are failing the next generation. Whether it’s adults who sell sex or use it to entertain, or those who are pushing a sexualized lifestyle on students who are clearly not equipped to make such important decisions, kids are drowning in the aftermath of a sexual tsunami.

It’s time to throw them a lifeline.  

Next month: What parents can do to protect their kids.