Pornography risks should be taught to children as young as five, say parents

[hunter]

54. The porn I saw as a little kid was either boring or yucky.

I also saw plenty of naked people of all ages in real life skinny dipping, breastfeeding babies, etc. The funniest thing I ever saw was my great grandma's mean old rooster chasing my naked grandpa. My great grandma was trying so hard not to burst into laughter but I can't help it, I still laugh whenever I think about it.

My dad's an artist, he draws naked people sometimes. If we had any questions about sex as kids, my mom would answer and my dad might draw a sketch.

I remember going to an art exhibit with my parents as a kid and one of the artists had created a display that was nothing but photographs of vaginas. (It was the 'sixties, and no, the exhibit was not restricted to adults.) I wonder if I couldn't find the artwork on the internet today, but I've no interest in seeing what bing images, safe search off, might dredge up.

My wife and I are not the hippies my parents were, but we've always been open and direct with our kids. There is no "secret knowledge" of sex.

Looking back to my own childhood I think that being knowledgeable about sex kept me out of a lot of trouble. The bullies in school might have called me "queer bait" but it seems likely sexual predators avoid kids like me because I'd have been telling a responsible adult exactly what had happened.

Before our kids had their own computers we had the family computer in the living room. (When they were in high school having their own computers was almost a necessity since they were both honors students doing a lot of writing.) There were occasional "oops" moments, but it was never a big deal.

Now that they are young adults I don't want to know about any porn they are looking at.

One of my sister's kids is an artist in San Francisco with a blog that would set a fundamentalist's hair on fire. Frankly the blog makes ME uncomfortable and my kids think it's amusing to see dad blush. But I know this sort of thing has been going on in my family for many generations. When my siblings and I were adults, my great aunt started telling us stories from her youth in roaring 'twenties Hollywood that made us blush.