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UManitoba research on youth sexuality

Bob Altemeyer at the University of Manitoba has been doing research on the sexual habits of Canadian youth - specifically, the persons who end up in his first-year psychology class. This kind of data is notoriously difficult to collect. About all you can do is ask people to fill out surveys, and there are a lot of reasons for them to lie or for the sample to be biased. If we're going to talk intelligently, and especially, if we're going to make policy, on these issues, then we had damn well better get accurate information about what is really going on. The sample chapters of Altemeyer's book go into considerable detail on just why studies of sexual behaviour are difficult to do right... and why he thinks his own studies are likely to be some of the most accurate available. Those sample chapters also present some of the results, and they're worth reading and thinking hard about. Some of the numbers are surprising; notably, the percentages among the male and female 19-year-olds polled who had had sexual intercourse at all. See if you can guess those two numbers, then look it up and see how you did. If you're really daring, try posting your guesses in the comments before you follow the link - though, of course, there's no way we could ensure you do that honestly.

I haven't read the rest of the book yet; I'm planning to order it from Lulu when I get back from my trip so that it won't arrive while I'm gone. As you know I'm less than thrilled about Lulu's recent behaviour, but I still think it's preferable to buy the book through them instead of Amazon because that way more of the proceeds will end up being passed through to Dr. Altemeyer, who is donating the money to a scholarship fund. (9 December 2009)

Child porn panic claims another victim

This isn't even so unusual anymore: high school students exchanging naked pictures of themselves, school administrators concerned, one saves a picture as evidence, the picture isn't actually pornographic even by Loudoun County standards, but OMG HE'S POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY!!!!, zero-tolerance, life ruined. Note that Loudoun County is the same place where they had the filtering software lawsuit in 1998; as one of the smarter commentators on the Wired article points out, if you're going to subject children to that kind of repression, what do you expect them to do a few years later when they're young adults? This kind of disaster is inevitable as long as we think it's a good idea to ban the mere possession of speech. Freedom of expression must be absolute. See also my comments from a few years ago on Nymphet and instigation, which I'd been meaning to move to my new site code and now looks like the right time. As I said then, if we treat the normal sexual behaviour of human beings - which absolutely starts at an age well under 18 - as a frightening aberration, then we guarantee that we will be frightened pretty often.

(8 April 2009)

On Kodomo no Jikan and instigation

A great deal has already been said about Seven Seas and Kodomo no Jikan/Nymphet. People who want to know about that stuff already do. There is just one thing relating to that mess that I'd like to comment on here; it concerns a point in Jason DeAngelis's first public statement on the subject. He has since retracted some of the statement, but the principle illustrated is more general than just this one incident.

(31 May 2007)