Being concerned about the sexual exploitation of teens does not, actually, require you to tell teens that they only reason they have the sexualities they have is because they were traumatized. But that’s what this post is doing.
I don’t know if you know this, but sexual development starts for most people during adolescence. It’s one of the major hallmarks for the age group. That doesn’t mean that, as adults, we should be sexualizing teens or assuming they have the skills and resilience to be involved in adult sexuality. But it does mean that we should be giving kids the supportive environment they need to develop their sexual desires in peace and comfort, rather than telling them that they broken, and the only reason they feel the way they feel is because they’ve been abused.
You’re not even accusing adults of being sexually aggressive here. You’re literally telling teens that their sexual desires are shameful, and rooted in trauma.
That’s the most bargain basement kind of sex negativity. It literally gives people complexes. It prevents people from accepting themselves, and by extension it prevents people from learning how to accept others. It creates sexual miscommunications that lead to bad experiences or even trauma later in life when those sexual desires are explored. It gives teens who are interested in kink the idea that no safe adult will ever give them educational resources on safely practicing it, which causes them to try it out themselves without any guidance, and get hurt. or worse, causes them to associate with predatory adults because they’ve been led to believe it’s the only way to learn, and they can’t just stop having sexual desires because that’s not how human beings work.
It’s also the same tired argument that everyone has been using for decades to “prove” that being gay, trans, or otherwise queer is simply caused by PTSD and not a natural expression of human sexuality.
Basically, this is a bad post. The intent might have been good, way down deep. I assume the goal was to help keep teens safer online. But the application is outright dangerous.
Keeping kids safe online means encouraging kids to safely engage with their sexual desires and learn about themselves in educational environments. It means holding adults accountable for any exploitation they force kids to undergo. It means demanding tools and boundaries that help adults keep their content away from teens who aren’t ready to cope with sexual subjects, without shaming those teens, or turning those adults into criminals.
Shaming people’s natural sexual desires doesn’t keep anyone safe. But it sure does encourage high risk behaviours and an environment of paranoia that creates sexual trauma.
janainaart
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
discoholicmusic
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annaxmalina
