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Book Review of Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex

Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex
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What you learn from this book: Everything you know is wrong.

There's a statistic saying 50% of teenagers are sexually active. But the question asked on the survey is "Have you had sex between 1-10 times within the past year". If they've only had sex once that year, that doesn't count as "active" in my mind.

Did you know that the average age of teens having sex is just the same in countries where they have a more comprehensive sex education program compared to ours, which are normally abstinence-only or abstinence-plus? Except since they are taught proper birth control options, teen pregnancy is less than 1% in some countries.

Kids who have their questions answered about sex in a straightforward manner are actually quite capable of handling the information. In one example, a child of 8 asks his mom "What's a rim job?" She tells him exactly what it is and his response is "Seriously? That's gross!" and was perfectly fine.

It may not change your mind, but it will certainly open your eyes. Maybe our attempts to protect children are actually harming them. By keeping information from them, we are undermining their growing minds that will someday become adults. That doesn't mean we should tell them everything right away, but divulging information in an age-appropriate manner may be a very good thing.