posted
So, 'bout 4 months or so ago, I was browing the interweb, and, well, let's say I *just happened* to stumble across an independant porn site (I was thinking about posting the url here, but I figured it might not be the brightest idea) but before I could actually enter the site, I of course has to click on the "Yes, I am 18 and willing to view naked girls..." button. However, I notice a different link onj that page as well : "if you are under 18 but would like information on sex, visit www.scarleteen.com". So, essentially, I discovered Scarleteen on a porn site... Ironic, to say the least. How do you - the people who make this site - feel about being discovered in such a sexist, misogynistic and generally backwards area?
-------------------- "In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful." ♥ Tolstoy Posts: 12 | From: Winnipeg | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Oddly enough, it's apparently common for porn sites to link to scarleteen for the "18 and under" link.
I think it has more to do with curiosity than anything else. If one is curious about sex, internet pornography seems to be a pretty quick way to look at it. I found scarleteen the same way, many years ago.
I suppose I'd rather have someone find scarleteen through that channel than not find it all.
-------------------- Caylin, Scarleteen Volunteer Love Scarleteen? Donations keep us around for you. So give a little! (Or a lot. Whatever works for you.) Posts: 2789 | From: The Evergreen State | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Yeah, I got that from a site on Safe Sex tips for BDSM. I ended up reading the site (it wasn't pornographic, but it was explicit, so I suppose they were obliged to post it). Either way, I was vaugly impressed.
-------------------- 19, male, interested in Sadomasochism (BDSM) and some bisexual tendancies. Posts: 157 | From: Canada | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Actually, here's the story with that stuff.
Years and years back, when I started Scarleteen, very few adult sites had ANY outlink for minors, and those few that did were generally really patronizing and crappy about it, linking out to Disney and some such.
Why was this crappy and patronizing? Well, because your average 6-year-old isn't just stumbling unto a porn site: most folks hitting those links out were teenagers. 'Net porn is so prevalent -- and far more so now -- that a young adult looking for sex education who put, say "teen sex" into google would often land at a porn site. Or, a young adult would be at a porn site because they were curious about sex, looking for information, what have you.
As well, with a site I ran when I started Scarleteen for adult women, I was getting lots of email from teen women wanting sex information, so I wanted US to have an outlink that brought them to it. At that time, there weren't any comprehensive sex ed sites for teens: there was only one other site which even addressed teens, but in a fairly creepy format where you had teens and adults in an unmoderated BBS that seemed to be overrun with some pretty leery, predatory adults who were just getting off on teens talking about sex.
So, I made Scarleteen to fill that obvious need, and a close friend of mine who runs one of the biggest adult site review sites added the outlink as well, and we both made a point of circulating some information suggesting that adult sites please outlink to Scarleteen or a site like it, rather than leaving young adults who might wind up at them -- for whatever reason -- lost or insulted. Over time, it has become a bit of a standard.
I have ZERO problem with us being linked at ANY porn site: heck, if nothing else, anyone who follows the link is not only going to get information, if they're coming from a particularly misogynist site, they're also going to find themselves then at a site where we discuss that, question these things, and show that one can discuss sex, talk about sex, etc. outside an arena of misogyny, commodity or entertainment. Even if they then go BACK to that site, for whatever reason, they've then found a place to get accurate information henceforth, and maybe picked up some ideas they wouldn't have seen otherwise in porn about sexuality, about gender, the whole works.
-------------------- Heather Corinna, Executive Director & Founder, Scarleteen About Me • Get our book! Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead Posts: 63355 | From: An island near Seattle | Registered: May 2000
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