Dear Lord. I'm just appalled that such a bill is necessary--we have "truth in advertising" laws but nothing on "truth in education"?

just lets not depend on the AMA to tell us what is medically accurate please. the AMA, being in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry is almost as bad as the abstinence folks

for them, the cure for everything is a pill

I would prefer better comprehensive ed programs in schools- the ones adopted are heavily focused on safer sex and honestly don't provide nearly enough content for teens choosing abstinence or supporting safer intimacy and eroticism through early sex (age of first sex as well as the overall emotional health impact on sexually active teens correlate to a lot of poor outcomes for people regardless of safer sex practices, which most teens are not using consistently and correctly even after recieving adequate facts).

Personally I think the problem is schools focus too much on the plumbing and mechanics of safer sex or abstinence and far too little on the relationship aspects, decision-making, and negotiation skills necessary for teens to *use* either the abstinence support information or the comprehensive safer sex information. Both programs have agendas that leave a lot of gaps for many teens.

I actually registered tonight just to post on this (I

I don't want to plug it but my company develops sexual entertainment and education games. We released our teen sex ed game targeting parents because there is such a need for mentors and parents to actively *discuss* sex, values, and give teens motivation and support to think about facts they hear and actually *use* them (sexually active or not, the motivation and support aspects are very important since facts alone don't seem to do the job).

Facts in education should be a given- it's sad that we can't just trust that schools will pick materials that are accurate. But the purpose of education is not just to fill people's heads with trivia (our trivia game slyly is a ploy to get people together and *provoke* conversation about topics that typically never come up between adults and teens because they are sensitive and awkward or controversial at times). Schools need to focus on that dialogue too and provoking thought and communication- giving people an excuse to be supportive and vocal about both abstinence and safer sex. I fear for the kids who don't get those messages at home OR school. :(

*back to lurking*

I love that the FOF article makes it look like the "pro-condom crowd" is victimizing the poor abstinence educators without mentioning the fact that they are LYING to children!

It's strange. Since kids are bright enough to pick up that doom and gloom views on sex aren't completely true, and they won't commit suicide when they have sex, wouldn't it be more productive for abstinence educators to disseminate information that was actually true? They might be taken more seriously by the students if they did.

God forbid that education in schools be CORRECT. :)

kellyrued,
will you come out of lurkage for a moment more and please plug your company? who are they? what's this game?

i, for one, am sincerely interested.

thanks for the insights!

Puck:

I'm not kellyrued, but a quick Googling comes up with:

http://www.isergames.com/tiki-custom_home.php

That they're marketing a pro-abstinence module for the game makes me wonder a little about its accuracy, however.

Zed,

Are you concerned that our games are inaccurate because we have included abstinence facts? Or is it because we have a second Christian themed product in development?

Abstinence education is NOT all inaccurate. Studies consistently show a slight majority of teens choose abstinence through all but the oldest years of high school. It is a huge part of many teen's life and values, and a great tool that is 100% effective in preventing many of the negative outcomes that sex educators are concerned with minimizing. Abstinence facts and support are as important to sex education as any other facts. Our games are comprehensive, and we have never and would never publish a "pro-abstinence module" for any of them.

I think maybe you saw we have a Christian themed version and *assumed* it would be pro-abstinence. I can almost understand that attitude but in this case it goes to show how people jump to conclusions, even on the "left" side of the issues. ;)

In terms of the parents market, there is a need for two distinctly branded versions of our game because the more straight-forward approach (www.sex-ed-game.com) is not going to appeal to ALL of the families that need comprehensive information and dialogues in their home.

To get sex ed into Christian homes, conservative homes, and other places where pro-safer-sex messages are unwelcome is a very important goal (the majority of families in the USA identify themselves as Christian and espouse values that make it pretty unlikely that most of the liberal-oriented sex ed materials will be used in these homes). Our goal with Sex Can Wait (the game I think you were referring to) was to create a comprehensive teen sex ed product that would be welcome in homes where it is probably more needed than in homes where sex ed is discussed openly already. :)

We will be releasing annual updates to the game and are working on acquiring accredited educators to contribute new content. We also make all of our sources for the game trivia available to anyone who is concerned about accuracy and verification. :D

(I also create adult entertainment games and am very liberal, but I'm the sort of hippie type that respects everyone's values and tries to work with people who think differently rather than against them... hence we are creating the Christian themed comprehensive product and considering similar versions, all comprehensive in content, for other markets with unique values/needs)

kellyrued:

Are you concerned that our games are inaccurate because we have included abstinence facts? Or is it because we have a second Christian themed product in development?

Specifically, I'm concerned that your game might be inaccurate because of the marketing of a version of your sex-ed game titled "Sex can wait".

I think maybe you saw we have a Christian themed version and *assumed* it would be pro-abstinence. I can almost understand that attitude but in this case it goes to show how people jump to conclusions, even on the "left" side of the issues. ;)

Given that you titled it "Sex Can Wait", I think I had pretty good cause to make that assumption. If you're not producing a pro-abstinence product, you are marketing it very misleadingly. That may be deliberate on your part, but please don't fault others for "jumping to conclusions" that you made a point of encouraging be reached.

While I can appreciate your stated intent, also please note that I didn't write that I believed that your games were inaccurate; I merely expressed a certain wariness about the accuracy, well-justified I believe by the rather rampant incidents of deliberate misinformation on the part of religious agencies. Alas, the benefit of the doubt that might once have been extended has been crushed beneath the wave of malice that has now tainted all such approaches. With the number of misleading providers reaching 80%, it is now better to mistrust until proven trustworthy than the other way around whenever a religious theme is discovered.

I look forward to reading independent reviews of your games that dispel any such fears.