Our 11-year-old boy recently burrowed through my home office, unearthed a hardcore comic book, and brought it to a sleepover to show his dopey gangly friends. He was busted when my wife found it stashed in his pillow case when he got home.We discussed how to handle it. I put the kibosh on the "it's demeaning to women" message, agreed on the others, which I delivered: He rifled through my filing cabinet where he didn't belong, the material was inappropriate for kids his age, and he brought it into somebody else's house—we wouldn't want him to get busted by them and never invited to their home again. (You never know how people will react to this stuff.)
What next? I explained to my wife how important porn is to curious burgeoning boys. But this stuff was pretty nasty, and even I, a lover of porn, think it's too advanced and too hardcore for an 11-year-old. How do I explain "too advanced" to a kid? When I was a kid, we got peeks at Playboys purloined from somebody's dad. Some boobs, maybe a hint of bush, was plenty exciting to a kid that age. Do I give him an avenue to softer stuff? Or just tell him to stay the hell out of my things? Is some sexual education meant to be surreptitious, shared only with peers?
Down And Dirty
My response after the jump...