The ‘Keep It Real Online’ campaign wants parents to talk about porn – UC sexuality educator provides advice on where to start
The Keep It Real Online campaign aimed at encouraging parents to talk to their children about pornography has gone viral, but it’s still hard to know where to start. UC sexuality educator Tracy Clelland provides further advice on how to best tackle this complicated topic in The Conversation.
This is why I always ask his opinion about how he makes sense of the world. As a sexuality educator for over 30 years, a university lecturer and mother of two teenage sons, it has been my privilege to listen to people’s stories of sexuality and the impact on their lives.
Some have been uplifting and some are simply heartbreaking. Either way, young people and adults generally want to reflect on the complicated, messy and often irrational nature of sex and relationships. They also want to talk about joy, pleasure, intimacy and love.
So any discussion of pornography inevitably leads to a broader conversation – much like the one we imagine is about to take place in that viral video.
In case you haven’t watched it, two naked porn actors arrive at an ordinary home to talk to a boy who has been watching them online. The mother who answers the door is understandably surprised and a little lost for words. But in the end she tells her son they need to talk about the difference between the online and real worlds.