Sex education should start with parents, not schools

This morning I read on Wired.com the parents of Jessica Logan are suing their daughter’s ex-boyfriend, who had distributed a nude photo of her to his classmates. Logan committed suicide and the ridicule she received due to the photo is believed the motive for her suicide.

The photo was only ever in existence because Logan had practiced the popular art of “sexting,” sending out nude or otherwise risqué photos to a boyfriend or girlfriend via your cell phone.

This comes on the heels of a story I saw on CNN.com last night, which cited a study in Pediatrics that claimed 40 percent of children have sex before having “the talk” with their parents.

The study involved children ages 13 through 17, as well as their parents. In it, 42 percent of girls reported they had not discussed the effectiveness of birth control, and 40 percent had never received any sort of talk or advice about refusing sexual intercourse.

But this was practically saintly compared to what the boys reported. Seventy percent of them claimed they had not received any sort of education on condom use. In defense of at least a few of the boys’ parents, 50 percent of them claimed to have discussed condom use with their sons. However, they should probably remember something about teenage boys: Many of them aren’t going to listen to you the first time you tell them something.

There’s been a lot of talk these days about sex education in schools, or the lack thereof, and such talks are warranted. The school system could probably be doing a better job in a lot of ways. However, I think the biggest factor in the fight against teen pregnancy and STDs should be the parents, and obviously a lot of them are failing.

Although I don’t yet have children myself, I’m sure “the talk” isn’t the easiest thing to give to them. I understand the awkwardness, both from the parents and the children. It’s not an easy subject. However, parents shouldn’t expect parenthood to be easy all the time, and a few awkward talks could save them from a lot more awkward (and potentially rage-filled) talks in the future.

It’s nice, I’m sure, to assume that children aren’t having sex. In my ideal, perfect world in which I’m a millionaire and “Transformers 2” didn’t suck, people wouldn’t have sex until they’re mature and preferably married.

However, the same Pediatrics study says that one-third of ninth graders have had sex, and half of tenth graders have as well.

Kind of scary, if you ask me.

I understand the (usually conservative-minded) desire to focus on abstinence-only sex education. I understand the worry if you teach children and teens how to have safe sex, it will only encourage them to have sex when they really shouldn’t.

However, even coming from a very conservative family (in which I was home-schooled after elementary school) I was given substantial talks on safe sex. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that no man, woman or child is going to be perfect. So while we should continue to hope the youth of this world will be morally smart and responsible, we should still prepare them in case they make mistakes.

A teenager who avoids sex until marriage is great, but a safe-sex, STD-free teenager is still much better than a pregnant teenager with crabs.

This sexting trend is one in particular that should be discussed between parents and their children. As Jessica Logan proved, it isn’t wise to create a sexually explicit image or video of yourself and share it with anybody unless you are willing to share that material with everybody — in other words, if you’re a model or porn star.

Maybe there’s something exciting and romantic about such actions between married couples, but it is a rather stupid idea in high school, and probably in college as well.

I know that — especially in high school — it’s easy to feel like you’re completely in love, you want to stick with your boyfriend or girlfriend and believe you can trust them completely. But too many cases have proven otherwise.

If you’re going to do something like sexting, it would be better to wait until you’re absolutely sure the content isn’t going to leak or be shared — and that’s difficult to be sure of before marriage, at least.

Parents need to start educating their children better on all of these issues, rather than complaining the school systems aren’t doing their job for them.

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Why Children Who Live Without Dads Have Earlier Sex

Researchers have known for years that children raised without a dad at home tend to start having sex at a younger age than those that do. I guess it was assumed that the factors were environmental - that kids saw their single mom dating so they started dating earlier and things like that. But a new study from researchers at six major U.S. universities have called that assumption into question. This new study argues that earlier sex is best explained by genetics, and the same genetic disposition that leads to earlier sex also creates problems for men in marriages.

This seems just a little counter intuitive to me. The challenges in any family without a father present are far-reaching and the results of absentee fathers' leaving their families cross many behavioral spectra. In any case, the research is interesting, but I am not yet convinced that genetics plays the dominant role in children having sex sooner. A responsible, committed father makes a good difference in so many areas.



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Child Sex Boom Fueled by Poverty ( Part 2 )

Earlier this year, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes stated in its Global Report on Trafficking in Persons that 79 percent of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation, one of the world's fastest-growing crimes. The report stated that the proportion of minors involved in the various forms of human-trafficking increased from about 15 percent to nearly 22 percent between 2003 and 2007. This past June, the Obama Administration expanded the U.S. watch list of countries suspected of not doing enough to combat human-trafficking, putting more than four dozen nations on notice that they might face sanctions if their records don’t improve.

ECPAT International’s recent report also warned that the number of children and young people trafficked within their own country is increasing. Such trafficking frequently involves movement from rural to urban areas or from one city or town to another without the need for travel documentation.

Purchasing sex, whether from children or adults, creates huge monetary incentives for human traffickers, according to Siddharth Kara, a board member of the Washington-based NGO “Free the Slaves” and author of the 2008 book “Sex Trafficking.” Even within the exploding slavery industry, which according to Kara generated $152.3 billion in revenues in 2007, trafficked sex workers are by far the most profitable of slaves.

It’s because of these huge revenues that destination countries often turn a blind eye to sex tourism. The International Labor Organization says it contributes as much as 14 percent of the gross domestic product of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.


P.S. Boost your sexual drive by eating lots of Vitamin C and Vitamin D rich foods and fruits.




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Child Sex Boom Fueled by Poverty ( Part 1 )

BANGKOK, Thailand — Narisaraporn Asipong, a matronly social worker at the “Mercy Center” shelter met 8-year-old Niran (a pseudonym) five years ago in Klong Toey, Bangkok’s largest concentration of slum communities.

“His step-father was beating him so he was scared to go home,” says Asipong, who has worked with street children for the last seven years. “He came with me to Mercy Center and I enrolled him in school.” A year later, Niran returned home because he missed his mother. “One day, I saw him on the streets again,” she says. “He looked very skinny and unhealthy.”

Asipong was not surprised when she heard that Niran was living with an older man who offered him food, money and video games in exchange for sexual favors. “There are groups of people who take advantage of children and sexually exploit them,” says Asipong. “The children get tricked easily because of promises of quick money.”

Niran told Asipong he was sick, and had HIV/AIDS. The United Nations estimates that 1 percent of Thailand's population is infected with the HIV virus — nearly three times the rate in the U.S. “When I last saw Niran in the hospital he told me that he wanted to be a good boy again,” says Asipong. On Aug. 22, 2009, Aspiong attended Niran’s cremation ceremony in Kanchanabuori, Thailand.

Niran was just one of the estimated 1.8 million children worldwide trapped in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex trade every year. Commercial sexual exploitation of children is booming according to a new global report, and governments are not doing enough to protect young people.

"The recent economic downturn is set to drive more vulnerable children and young people to be exploited by the global sex trade," says Carmen Madrinan, executive director of ECPAT International, the organization that authored the August 2009 report. "The indifference that sustains the criminality, greed and perverse demands of adults for sex with children and young people needs to end."

Increasing poverty in children’s countries of origin and smaller budgets for social services are two of the factors heightening children’s vulnerability. Deterioration of living conditions often compels young people to abandon school in order to contribute to the family income, putting them at risk of seeking livelihood options that lead to their being exploited, according to ECPAT International.

As a result of the current global downturn, hundreds of factories have closed in Thailand, leaving thousands of both Thai and non-Thai workers unemployed. Unemployment is rising at a rate of about 100,000 workers a month and may climb to 1.5 million by the end of the year.

“If you ask me, the government is not correcting the source of the problem,” says Asipong. “It’s just treating the symptoms. Poverty is a big contribution to the problem in Thailand, especially in the countryside. Whether parents or children, both have to struggle to survive.”

Street children and stateless children are extremely vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation, says Amanda Bissex, UNICEF Thailand's Chief of Child Protection. "We need to improve law enforcement and the economic welfare of children," she says, "but we also need to address people's attitudes and create an environment where there is zero tolerance for abuse of children, whether in their home country or overseas."

To be Continued........


P.S. Boost your sexual drive by eating lots of Vitamin C and Vitamin D rich foods and fruits.




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Another Journalist Faces Lashing in Saudi Sex Scandal Fallout

A 36-year-old Saudi journalist remains in prison and faces 70 lashes for working at an unlicensed television station after two female reporters were pardoned by King Abdullah Monday for the same alleged offenses, a lawyer involved with the case said Tuesday.

Omar Felimban was charged with working for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp., the Beirut-based satellite TV station known as LBC, after it had its license suspended for airing a racy show this summer, Sulaiman Al Jumeii, a Jeddah-based lawyer advocating on Felimban’s behalf, said.

According to widely-published reports, the main subject of the show, Mazen Abdul Jawad, a 32-year-old airline clerk, shocked the conservative kingdom by revealing the secrets of his sex life. During the broadcast, the divorced father of four told tales of sleeping with his neighbor at the age of 14, and picking up girls using the chatting functions of Bluetooth on his mobile phone. He also showed off some sex toys to the cameras.

Abdul Jawad denies he confessed to these acts and accuses LBC of editing the broadcast, according to his lawyer Al Jumeii.

A spokeswoman for LBC in Beirut declined to comment.

Abdul Jawad was sentenced to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes earlier this month. Three friends who appeared on the show with him got two-year terms and 300 lashes each. And LBC, which is owned by the Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, had its license from the Ministry of Culture and Information suspended and had to close down its offices in Riyadh and Jeddah in August because of the show.

The television station is also facing a lawsuit filed at the Ministry of Culture and Information by Abdul Jawad for allegedly deceiving him during the tapings. “All the producers and executives involved in making the show have fled the country, and the only ones facing penalties are the participants and the journalists who were coordinators at the station,” Al Jumeii said.

The Ministry of Culture and Information is investigating Abdul Jawad’s claims, its spokesman Abdulrahman Al-Hazza said. It has also taken over the cases of the two female journalists from the courts and will examine if any laws were broken.

Representatives for the women could not be reached for comment.

The female journalists could be banned from the profession, pay a fine or go to prison, but they will not face lashings, Al Jumeii said. He said he presented the case of Felimban to the Minister of Culture and Information on Tuesday and was assured the case would be transferred from the courts to the ministry soon.



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Ohio morgue worker admits to sex with bodies

A man who worked at the county morgue for 16 years and is serving time for having sex with a corpse admitted today to having sex with two more bodies during his employment.

Kenneth Douglas, 56, of Westwood pleaded guilty to two counts of gross abuse of a corpse before visiting Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Niehaus. He could be imprisoned for a maximum of three years at his Dec. 10 sentencing.

Douglas was employed for 16 years, from 1976-1992, as a night attendant at the morgue. He told authorities previously that while there, he invited women in and partied with them with drugs and alcohol. He also admitted to having sex with bodies being stored while awaiting autopsies.

He is currently serving a three-year sentence for having sex with another corpse -- that of Karen Range, an 18-year-old murder victim who was nearly beheaded in 1982 and had been in the morgue cooler for hours.

Douglas said nothing today except to give respectful, short answers to routine questions from the judge.

Douglas admitted today that he had sex with the bodies of two homicide victims as they were awaiting autopsies:
• Charlene Edwards, 23, also known as Charlene Apling, who was strangled to death. He had sex with that body Oct. 1, 1991.
• Angel Hicks, 24, who was pushed from a third-story window and died from blunt trauma. He had sex with that body Dec. 8, 1991.

Douglas pleaded guilty without a plea deal. Assistant Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said his office would offer no deals to Douglas.

After Douglas pleaded guilty in 2008 to having sex with Range’s corpse, officials conducted an extensive investigation comparing Douglas’ DNA to that of other bodies in the morgue during the time Douglas worked there.

Initially, officials feared there could be dozens of other victims, based on some of the stories Douglas told them. They were able to indict him on two additional charges.

“He told us he was out of control,” Prosecutor Joe Deters said in March after Douglas was indicted on the two charges he pleaded guilty to today.

“This is off-the-charts weird.”

Douglas was first caught when he violated his probation on a previous conviction, and his DNA was taken by officials and placed in a database. The database showed Douglas’ DNA matched that of the semen left in Range’s body.

That was good news for David Steffen, the man who spent 26 years on Ohio’s death row for Range’s murder but who insisted he never raped her. Now, Steffen’s attorneys are using Douglas’ acts to try to get Steffen off death row.

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Shauna Sand's Sex Tape Leaked

Another celebrity sex tape has been leaked and this time on it is of actress and Playboy model Shauna Sand. The hardcore footage, as reported by TMZ, has been obtained by Vivid Entertainment and is expected to be released next Monday, October 19.

The busty blonde is seeking legal action to prevent Vivid Entertainment from releasing the hardcore tape.

As of the press time, Shauna is making an attempt to block the release of the tape. "Yes I did make a sex tape with my boyfriend earlier this year. In fact I've made several sex tapes, but I certainly didn't sign off on this and Vivid has no right to put it out. I am trying to get a hold of my attorney now," TMZ quotes her as saying.

However, Vivid founder Steven Hirsch has countered Shauna's statement, claiming "We were approached by a third party, who brought us footage of Shauna having sex with her current boyfriend and we were immediately interested in acquiring it ... We're comfortable with our legal position in releasing this footage."

Continuation of the issue is still on going at the time of writing. More information is expected to be made by either Shauna or Vivid.



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