A group of sex education experts suggest that teachers need to know pornography isn’t ‘all that bad’ and can sometimes be ‘helpful’. Most teens watching porn for the first time do it when they are 14 and continue till and even after they have had actual sex for the first time at the age of 17. Is watching porn really that bad for teens and their intimate relationships? The Sex Education Forum doesn’t think so. The forum wants pornography to be taught to high schoolers in terms of "media literacy and representation, gender, sexual behavior and body image".

Porn is not real

Teens have a digitally driven life. For them one-to-one or immediate experiences are replaced by second hand imagery. Most of them fail to decipher the difference between acting and reality when they see porn. They don’t quite understand it yet because porn is meant for adults. They are not up to that level of understanding of what is being depicted and it has both developmental and experimental ramifications. That is why sex education for teenagers should include porn literacy.

Sex education experts suggest that as young as five-year-old kids should be taught about airbrushing and how it is used to such an extent in the media that they tend to create unrealistic bodily expectations. 11-year-olds who are at the brink of the teenage should be taught about the dangers of sexting. By the age of 14, they should start learning about how unrealistic imagery is a vital part of porn and all of it is either acting or airbrushing.

How should teachers react to porn when talking to teens?

Sex education teachers are nervous when talking to their students about pornography. But seeing how easily teens can access explicit content on the internet, it is crucial that teachers talk to teens about porn. They need to start mentioning it casually to 11-year-olds in a very normal way so they don’t see it as something of a shock horror. Dropping the subject of porn here and there can help them figure out that their teachers are happy talking about it.

It might make them uncomfortable but teachers can’t get away with it. It is influencing the teens through every aspect of the society. It’s not just the internet that provides them with explicit content. It’s almost everywhere. Take Page Three for instance.

What young women need to learn about porn?

Much of the talk here has been about teaching young boys how to react to porn. The percentage of young women watching porn is gradually going higher and we need to talk to them about boundaries, consent, coercion and pressure.

If you have a teen daughter and you’re worried that guys watching porn are going to pressure her into having sex with them, talk to her casually about manipulation, coercion, boundaries and what it means when someone says, “I care about you but I want you to do something you don’t want to do.”

How can parents help?

Most parents would be horrified at the idea of their teens being taught about porn, especially in this framework. But the intention is to reject moral absolutes when they watch porn and to encourage them towards forming the perception that there are no rights and wrongs during sexual expressions.

But you don’t need to wait till your boy comes home drunk covered in vomit to talk about alcohol. You need to do it as soon as possible. Young people are probably not watching porn on the old-fashioned things we used to call computers. They are using their smartphones to gratify them sexually. We need to initiate the conversation and we need to do it as soon as we hand them their first cell phone.