By Nicholas Kristof | The New York Times| Dec. 10, 2020
To the Editor.
Nicholas Kristof got it right when he reasoned that the core problem isn’t pornography, but non-consensual sexual activity. For anyone unclear about the concept, adult sexual activity with minors is never consensual and thus always illegal. But there is a critical solution: comprehensive sex education. It’s what prevents exploitation and violence from happening in the first place.
Despite its name, comprehensive sex ed has very little to do with sex and everything to do with giving youths at every developmental stage opportunities to explore and understand identity and belonging, boundaries and consent, emotional intelligence and digital literacy.
The idea is simple. Reach youths before they sneak cameras into locker rooms, before they press their classmates to snap salacious pictures, before they assault and before they become the leader of a powerful corporation that does little to prevent child sexual exploitation.
So, yes, create financial and legal incentives to encourage institutions to behave better, but also establish policies that promote teaching humans to understand and respect themselves and to never trample on the dignity of another.
Rachel Ginocchio
Portland, Ore.
The writer is a sexual health educator and consultant.
A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 11, 2020, Section A, Page 26 of the New York edition with the headline: The Scourge of Child Pornography. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe