New Zealand’s New Campaign Talks About Porn Vs Real Sex And Educates People On Consent. India Could Benefit From This Too
Several of us watch porn or have watched porn at some point. Many of us started quite young while many took time to get used to watching two random people get it on. As an adult, most of us just use it to lubricate the wheels of our imagination and arousal. We click on a video and start watching the hot stranger flirt with the woman and in no time, the clothes are off and things are getting heated. Once we are done, we don’t even care how their steamy encounter ended or whether the woman orgasmed or not. However, often the boundaries between porn and real life relationships blur out, especially for those who don’t have enough sexual experience. What they see is what they believe. And for all we know, pornographic content doesn’t teach you consent and respect of boundaries.
If as adults, even we have difficulty not getting influenced by porn, how can young kids who are just beginning to explore their sexuality hold back? New Zealand government launched a campaign called Keeping it real online, which is targeted at parents of young kids to raise children that are not learning everything they know about sex from porn and also to keep them safe from online harm.
Young adults rely on porn for their understanding of sex and the campaign’s ad aims to point out how they should know that it’s not how things should be. The adult stars in the campaign land up on the doorstep of a mother whose child just looked them up online. They tell her that he watches them everywhere on every possible device that allows video streaming. In fact, they also tell her that since he is just a kid, they came to explain to him that real life relationships aren’t like that. They never talk about consent, and in real life, it’s a concept without which the sex is not sex, but rape. It’s the most important concept of sexual activity and everything else in life. And yet, a child learning from porn doesn’t ever see that happening. The guy says that he’d never do that IRL.
The ad not only talks about how porn can be giving the wrong idea of sex to young kids but also shows a world where talking about it is not met with judgment. The mother turns to her child and decides to have the talk in which she doesn’t chastise him for exploring sex but only intends to educate him about things that matter. It’s important that parents don’t shy away from the sex talk and make it sound more like a taboo subject.
This is… pretty awesome, actually? What a grown-up way to address this. https://t.co/Q6pfrRQjVl
— Iron Spike (@Iron_Spike) June 13, 2020
The campaign is supported by a website which discusses the aggression used in porn. “This most frequently shows men controlling or dominating another person, often women,” reads an article on their website. “Talk to your young person about the importance of an equal balance of power in all intimate relationships and that violence is never okay,” they add a quick tip for the parents. In fact, it also says that when you’re not sure if there is consent “you must stop and check in.” The website boasts of guides for parents (but really adults can help themselves) to give a thorough lowdown on sex.
I think it’s important that we millennials are as woke as possible and keep trying to expand our understanding of things. Tomorrow when we have kids, we have the tools to raise them with good sex education, without gender-bias, and with the idea of consent drilled into their heads. We’d raise them, keeping their mental health in check and so we’d hopefully have a new pool of adults who don’t go vomiting on personal boundaries.
And as much as I’d like to believe this is for kids, I feel it’s pretty relevant to the adults as well considering how most of them didn’t get this kinda education at a young age. Several adults don’t understand consent or that women really don’t have such flexibility or the desire to have cum splashed all over her face. Women don’t like being groped by a random dude on a train or have a doctor take undue advantage of them. We don’t like to be humiliated by our sex partners. Porn is not even close to reality and I am not even getting into the incestuous, forbidden, and criminal kind. And I feel while this is targeted at parents to have a talk with their kids, adults can see it as a nudge to remember to be objective while indulging in porn.
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Apart from porn, Keeping it real online is advertising to encourage parents to talk about cyber-bullying and about talking to strangers on social media. It also reminds parents to monitor the content kids are consuming. New Zealand’s campaign is getting it right because they are helping parents build a generation with a good upbringing while also reducing cyber crimes. I believe a strong female leader such as Jacinda Ardern has a lot to do with this move. A young woman would know the importance of consent and how it needs to be taught at a young age.
