When I’m talking with parents about the accessibility and impact of pornography on kids today, they often want to shut down, plug their ears or pretend that their kids are good enough to stay away from hardcore porn.  Unfortunately, the largest viewers of online pornography are teenagers today, and the vast majority of kids will accidentally encounter pornography online.  So what’s a parent...

Earlier this week, we looked at two reasons pornography can be especially harmful to children: Firstly, the images can never be erased and are especially alluring to young brains; and, Secondly, that a child’s prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, and as a result, they have a very difficult time distinguishing fantasy from reality (read the full blog here).

The third reason that...

 Last week, Kevin brought up some great points regarding pornography’s impact on the brain.  As Kevin highlighted, most kids today believe that viewing pornography is no big deal—that what they watch online will have little impact on their offline relationships and lives.  Sadly, many parents also believe this myth or the myth that their kids are too young or too smart to seek out or encounter...

As parents and youth leaders, it’s easy to fall short when it comes to talking with our kids about sex and purity (but for a great resource, check out our book The Volunteer's Back Pocket Guide to Sex and our DVD resource, Pure Sex).  Frankly, it’s just pretty uncomfortable to talk about sexual issues when we’re face to face with our “innocent” little sons and daughters, but the reality is...

Did I just hear some parents pass out?

When I was growing up, I don’t remember ever thinking about anal sex.  Do you?  Twenty years ago… or even ten years ago, most teenagers would not have known what anal sex even was. Those who did know about it probably would not have considered engaging in it. But as we talk about so often on this site, online pornography has become the primary sex-ed...

Over the past few months, we’ve started to tackle some common cultural myths relating to sexuality, including:

Myth 1: “Porn is Harmless Fun”

Myth 2: “If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It”

Myth 3: “What You Do Now Won’t Matter as an Adult”

Which brings us to Myth 4: “I Need to Masturbate!” 

As we began to tackle last month, as uncomfortable as it is to talk to your son or daughter about sex, it’s even...

Since it’s STD Awareness Month, I want to continue to follow up on our conversation from last week about STDs.  When I was going through Sex-Ed, frankly, I don’t think STDs (apart from AIDS) were really talked about much.  Hopefully your kids have heard a little about STDs if they are a teen or tween, but if they haven’t, here are a few facts that are important to consider talking about with...

Did you know April is STD Awareness Month?  Well, now you do, so it’s a good time to start talking to your teen or tween about the facts.  As Kevin shared earlier this week, a common myth that we all believe when we are young is that what we do as kids won’t impact us as adults, but as Kevin highlighted, whether it’s a tattoo or an STD, the choices we make as youths can stick with our bodies...

Have you heard of ABC’s new show “GCB”?  It’s based on a book called Good Christian Bitches; both book and show do a pretty good job of pointing out hypocrisy within the church and painting (at least some) Christians as pharisaical nut cases.

During the latest episode, Pastor Tudor (the head pastor of a church in the most affluent neighborhood in Dallas, TX) challenges the committed, married...

 A few years ago, I worked on a multi-media project called Internet Safety 101, which focuses on educating and empowering parents to protect kids from online dangers.  In one section of the program, we interviewed a number of teenagers to learn the impact pornography had already had on their young lives.  As one 16-year-old boy explained (you can watch the clip here): “pornography shaped my...