Combating the influences of pornography in the information era through sex education: A challenge for teachers and teacher educators

The rapid increase in the flow of information in the information era could be regarded as a mixed blessing to school educators. In the celebration of the promises of the World Wide Web for students to gain access to the information highway, there is an increasing concern or even fear that students are prone to pornographic materials that are proliferating in the cyberspace. The propagation of such materials in the web is fueled by the mass media, particularly the newspapers. Sex has been featured prominently in some of the best-selling local newspaper, which now include even “reviews” of pornographic web-sites. While it is technically feasible to impose some form of restricted access at schools, it would be much more difficult to extend this form of censorship outside school. This paper argues that sex education is still the most effective means to combat such crisis. Yet the current situation has challenged some of the basic assumptions or myths on which current sex education strategies in schools are based. It also necessitates the rethinking of both the short-term and long-term goals of school sex education. This paper will explore a set of cross-curricular strategies that incorporates the nature of pornography, critical thinking skills and moral judgment to combat the new wave of pornography.