Anti-sexting application resurrects debate over how much control parents should have

By Vanessa Brown

Knowing there are public photos that violated the girl's vulnerability and safety deeply upset Murielle Boudreau. In September, sexually explicit images of a 16-year-old girl, gang-raped by a group of males at a Pitt Meadows, B.C. field party were posted online. Within days, the photos quickly spread across Facebook, leading RCMP officials to plead with students to help stop it. Two Pitt Meadows male students have since been charged with child pornography.

Boudreau, a member of the Greater Catholic Parent Network, cringes at the thought that such photos are out there for her two teenaged daughters to see. But instead of controlling their Internet use and cell phone text messages, Boudreau uses the incident to communicate with them.

"It's just brutal," she said. "It's vulgar, and so we talk about things like that, and I tell them to be careful about what pictures they put out there because they're there forever."

In an attempt to control vulgar text messages, Apple patented an application on Oct. 12 that will allow parents to block unauthorized content sent or received by their children. Although the patent doesn't explicitly refer to "sexting" (text messages of a sexual nature), U.S. tech experts have dubbed it the "anti-sexting app." The application is not yet available.

What do kids really know about sex?

The last time I had sexual-education was in grade 9. The curriculum I had was the very same one that students use today. Incidentally, it was the first year the curriculum had been applied enmasse. 1999.


But what do I really remember from health and sex-ed?

DON'T DO DRUGS

WEAR A CONDOM

DON'T HAVE SEX

DRUGS ARE BAD

What the Ontario sex-ed curriculum really said

I love research. Some would say I'm addicted to researchahol. (Seriously, I need a 12-step program.)

Before I begin my interviews and before I can even begin generating a source list, I need my fix.

But I tend to get carried away.

Reading articles, studies, court-documents, text-books, websites and government documents gives depth to a story. But I want to read everything. Everything.

And the sex-ed story was no exception.

I had many questions to answer: why did the Ontario government withdrawl the proposed changes to the sex-ed portion of the health and physical education curriculum? What was so controversial? What were the timelines? What did the curriculum look like prior? What did the proposed chages really say?

Empowering Torontonian women to talk about sex and sexuality

By Vanessa Brown

My beat members and I have noticed that, more than anything, most of our stories have the importance of communication in common. And last Saturday was no exception. The Empowering African Immigrant Women to Become Leaders in Raising Sexually Healthy Children workshop was open and honest dialogue in action.

It wasn't the first time the program's been offered. Last year, Toronto Public Health facilitated a similar education series. However, the co-ordinator's noticed that it was being taught from the top-down. The curriculum didn't leave enough room for participants to voice their own opinions on sexual-health information. So it didn't take.

This time around, Toronto Public Health teamed up with Africans in Partnership Against AIDS (APPA), which provided a social worker to help with the workshops. Even better, the social worker knew the participants personally.

I walked into the narrow basement of APPA last Saturday and was immediately overtaken with the warm voices of nine recent immigrants to Canada. They spoke primarily in French. Thinking the language barrier might hinder my ability to get the story, and get it right, I sat down with caution.

Sex is my Profession!

I read erotica. I said it; I'm not ashamed! I think it is so much better than pornography. I get to fill int he gaps in my head, whereas in film there are very few gaps. That became more sexualized than I wanted it to. Anyway, I think it is difficult to picture the people who make this kind of writing their job. So I wanted to show the world that the people who do this, are normal everyday people. They have children, spouses and soccer practice to take the kids to.
As I expected, it is not something that many writers tell their fellow soccer moms.
Dar Mavison's children went to an alternative school, she accidentally told one of the other moms and at first the other moms were shocked, but quickly decided it was really cool!
It seems like a strange thing, but she started writing erotica and porn so she could spend more time