THE ETHICIST TAP : [A] 1/2

 

PARENTS are always measuring their children's progress to make sure they aren't lagging behind. As you remind us, though, there are areas where their lagging behind would suit us just fine.

What's unusual about the situation you describe, I'm afraid, is just that your son was caught. To judge from several studies, he's at the age when American youth, on average, first view pornography.

In her 2021 book '' Pornography and Public Health,'' Emily F. Rothman, a public health expert at Boston University, notes that an interest in sexual imagery at that age makes sense, developmentally speaking.

Part of what's so valuable about Rothman's book is that she's upfront about the conflicting or equivocal nature of much of that research ; people who make confident declarations about the consequences of viewing porn are apt to have a very partial view of the findings.

In general, the empirical findings about the participatory online media is notoriously messy and contested.

It can encourage teenagers to eat laundry pods ; it can also let young climate activists know that they're part of a global movement.

Still, Rothman is clear that online porn is a lousy form of sex ed. Though parental control can be helpful, the fact that porn mostly doesn't belong to the genre of cinema verite is something to convey in health classes, and in your version of the parental '' birds and bees '' conversation.

The Answer publishing continues to Part 2.

The World Students Society thanks Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah who teaches philosophy at N.Y.U.