Laying a Solid Foundation for Tough Conversations

PopPorn Parents Podcast: Episode 2

Teens’ growing curiosity about sex is perfectly normal. Throughout recent history they have had to manage this curiosity without the real world experience to balance out desires and expectations. For example teens have been able to hear about or read about all sorts of sexual activities that they have yet to engage in that might have shaped their desires about what to expect but today they are bombarded with all sorts of sexual imagery that prior generations did not have access to and this imagery may be perhaps more influential…you know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words?

This is a lot to manage for developing brains! It is a lot to ask our kids to have unlimited access to all of their favorite things and only use it in moderation. It’s also overwhelming to monitor all of this and even harder to limit it! So we’ve got a lot of work to do to try to manage how our kids are being balanced with real world versus digital and virtual realities.

While we help teens navigate sexuality in the digital age, the primary mission is for them to grow up to be sexually and romantically competent people. Just keep that in mind while you’re trying to keep limits on and monitor their internet access in your home, because that only goes so far. Although it is necessary for preventing problematic patterns of behavior that are developed by repeated hours of watching porn alone in their room or interacting with strangers online and being coerced into sending images, trying to prevent any exposure just isn’t practical.

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Megan Maas, PhD.