Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex

Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex
by Judith Levine, Foreword by Dr. Joycelyn M. Elders
University of Minnesota Press | 296 pages | 2002
ISBN 0-8166-4006-8 | hardcover/jacket | $25.95

A radical, refreshing, and long overdue reassessment of how we think and act about children¹s and teens¹ sexuality.

Sex is a wonderful, crucial part of growing up, and children and teens can enjoy the pleasures of the body and be safe, too. In this important and controversial book, Judith Levine makes this argument and goes further, asserting that America¹s attempts to protect children from sex are worse than ineffectual. It is the assumption of danger and the exclusive focus on protection‹what Levine terms "the sexual politics of fear"‹that are themselves harmful to minors.

Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs 'Threaten' Health of Young People - 2002 Report by Human Rights Watch .... Abstinence-only sex education programs are "threatening" the health of young people by excluding information on condom use and other methods of preventing HIV transmission. The report, titled "Ignorance Only: HIV/AIDS, Human Rights and Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Programs in the United States," analyzes several abstinence-only programs and ad campaigns in Texas. Texas was selected as the case study for the report because a substantial share of federal funding for abstinence-only programs is allocated to the state and because Texas has actively promoted abstinence-only programs statewide. [Hmmm, could it have anything to do with Texas being President Bush's home state.]

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