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 for you, if you want to enjoy sex."
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.
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.
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?
Sex as necessary for social station is not being sex-positive.
You seem to not pay attention to our lawmakers, our newsmedia, and have many conversations with the persons around you.
I think Skoofoo is spot on.
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.
And that's from only reading the first couple sentences.
In my opinion it's important to know the symptoms of any addiction in case you see those patterns in your own or your peer's behaviors.
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.
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.
I try not to lie to children, if at all possible.
I've never tried to smoke so I can't really compare.