Someone smart once said to me that “learning about sex from porn is pretty much the same as learning to drive by watching The Fast and The Furious.” There just isn’t that much overlap between real sex between real people and porn. Although, to be honest, more real people are posting their own porn and so some of it has come back down to earth.
So what’s a parent to do? Because, like it or not, your child WILL be exposed to porn. That is, if they have access to a cell phone. So I think the antidote is, in this case as in many others, to TALK to your kids. Explain to them what porn is before they see it. Talk to them about why some people use porn (and if you can do it non-judgmentally, all the better) and then explain to them how much seeing porn can distort their perspective. And maybe also add that real sex is great but different.
Here’s an article from The NY Times which I think does a terrific job talking about this issue.
