Condoms for Children
May 13th, 201017 comments Posted in Men and Women, Parenting, Podcasts
Podcast
A swiss company has begun manufacturing and marketing a condom targeted to 12-14 year old boys, called the Hotshot. Jane loves the idea. Dan hates it. Have a listen and decide for yourself.
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Wow. I listened to this on my way into work this morning and was literally yelling at my radio.
I preface this by saying (as I have in the past) that I am not a parent nor do I work with children/teens in any capacity. However, I do realize that the world is not what it was when I was young (I say that like it was so long ago, but I guess it was – yeesh).
I have to go with Dan on this and here’s why. Something you didn’t touch on is the fact that putting these into the hands of 12-14 year old boys, in my opinion, will only increase the pressure on young girls to become sexually active. Now granted, it could be that some of these girls would be sexually active regardless. But I don’t think that can be true in all cases. I was that girl once.
Some adult males can’t put on a condom correctly. Do we really think a 12-14 year old boy is going to do it right? I know we preach education, but then the focus should be on why NOT to be having sex, not here’s how you put on condom on a banana.
It’s stuff like this that reminds me why I’m iffy on the kid situation. *shudders*
20 years ago when I was that age, kids were having sex. And condoms didn’t fit them so we had a rash (no pun intended) of pregnant 7th and 8th graders. And we also had a girl who had herpes.
20 minutes ago I was reading a grant proposal for an agency here that serves pregnant teens in our area (Eastern PA, NJ, and Delaware). Their definition of a pregnant teen is a girl between the ages of 9 and 21. Sadly, I’ve met several pregnant grade schoolers during my time on this job. SEVERAL. And they aren’t all incest victims or black kids from poor neighborhoods (insert Britney and Jamie Spears comment here).
Saying that making these condoms will make a young kid have sex is absolutely ridiculous. Did condoms make any of our generation have teen sex vs. not have teen sex? Not my friends, maybe other people in other places were different.
Bottom line? I’ve seen too many pregnant children to be against this. Children are having sex. It’s a fact. It’s disgusting to us, but it happens. In every social class, every race, every creed, every religion.
When my child is 11 I hope to all that is holy that he isn’t having sex. But I know that kids that age are having it and a lot of it. So damned certain he will know about these condoms and know that I will give them to him. If I had a daughter she would know about birth control options and know that you need condoms on top of a pill because the pill (and abortion, because kids do rely on abortion as birth control) doesn’t provide protection from STDs.
You know what I hate? Children’s sunscreen. I mean, why are these kids going in the sun in the first place? Any responsible parent would be sure to keep their child in the shade all the time. Any smart child knows to stay out of direct sunlight. This children’s sunscreen bullshit is just giving irresponsible parents and children an excuse to allow their kids to play outdoors on a sunny day.
Screw that man, any parent dumb enough to put their baby outdoors DESERVES to have a child with cancerous lesions all over its body. Any kid dumb enough to go in the sun should be punished with third degree burns and sun poisoning.
Lora´s last blog ..
Oh my God, Lora.
Are you kidding me?
Look. At. The. Packaging. Lookatit.
Tell you what – lemme make this easy for you – I stopped off at the local WalMart this morning to take a picture of the condom rack. click to see it. Find ONE package of condoms there that is as sexually explicit as the packaging shown in the graphic above (I photoshopped the product into the kid pic, duh – but look at the product).
There isn’t one.
Here’s what else you need to know, and I think this speaks volumes. It is being MARKETED. If this were simply about the safety and health of the kids, it’d come in a plain wrapper (cost savings), distributed to schools and older brothers, would be dramatically discounted (this is an altruistic endeavor after all, right?), and? Would not be MARKETED.
This is a business that just tapped into a new market. Expanding their customer demographics. And they are marketing the sexy as hard as they can. (again, please look at the packaging.)
Jane, quite accidentally, nailed it when she brought up Joe Camel in the podcast. She didn’t like Joe Camel because he was influencing kids to smoke. The government forced Camel to change it’s marketing for fear it was harming kids. What do you think the marketing and sexyslick packaging of this condom is saying?
Is it saying “don’t have sex?”
Is it saying “If you have sex, please be safe about it?”
Fuck. No. It’s saying, just like every other MTV and pop culture product/media outlet, that young kids are sexual, it’s good, it’s right. Let’s get naked. If you look at that packaging and see anything other than that? You’ve been brainwashed. Please get your toothpicks and go rent A Clockwork Orange.
Now you have some experience with this, Lora. Some. And dare I say anecdotal? Yes, I do. What is the demographic you serve in your job? Is that representative of the population as a whole? Have you been involved in state or nationwide studies in the matter? Maybe you have, but I’m betting not.
You’ve met SEVERAL pregnant gradeschoolers. For the sake of argument, let’s say several = 10. If it were more, you’d have said a dozen, right?
So, in your years on the job, you’ve met 10. And not ALL of them were victims of incest or kids in poor neighborhoods. So, some of them were. Half? More than half? Let’s say 5. That means in your years of work, you’ve met 5 that “could have been helped” by having these condoms made available.
And I define “could have been helped” as:
1) Would have benefited from having a smaller condom. That’s a BIG if. Or maybe a little one.
2) Would have had unencumbered access to the condoms (didn’t have to travel five miles by bicycle to get them, for example)
3) Had the pocket money to buy them (see the packaging? It costs money – Probably $5 for a 3-pack)
4) Had the will to buy them. (Bareback is pretty awesome.)
So. If all those things fell into place, those five kids, out of all the kids you’ve encountered in your years of work, MAY have been helped.
Whew. That’s dramatic. And by dramatic I mean not at all dramatic.
Now. Let’s say this company manufacturing, marketing and selling these condoms hits the airwaves. Ads in between Pokemon and Transformers show the kid on the package above grinding against his girlfriend. (hello? that’s what’s going on ON THE PACKAGE.)
Whatever message of safety or responsibility they present falls on deaf ears, much like the “please drink responsibly” caveats in beer ads, because whoa! Sex. Right there. And made for me.
That message of “these condoms are for YOU, twelve-year-old” is going to influence FAR MORE than the five kids you met that MAY have been helped.
The parenting and education process that’s needed to stem this tide is being paid lip service. Jane’s “backup plan” is becoming “Plan A” with the marketing of this product.
the number that I have actually MET is low. Less than twenty more than ten. This is mainly due to the fact that I just can’t take it, and avoid meeting these children at any cost because it breaks my heart and soul to see it.
However, the agency that serves pregnant teens serves nearly 50 pregnant children 13 and under each year in the 5 county area. This does not count for children in NJ and Delaware because I’m not privy to the stats outside of my catchment area.
Lora´s last blog ..
also, as far as they are marketed for children. Of course they have to be eye catching. I’m not seeing any commercials for these things and I’m not seeing any posters about them in the health centers that I visit around Philadelphia. So they better be god damned eye catching and appealing to young people having sex. How else would they know what to buy?
I don’t want them buying the less-appealing condoms for grown ups. They slip off because they are too big.
Lora´s last blog ..
You’re not seeing them because they haven’t made it to America yet.
So you’re saying that to brand them so that kids can recognize them, they have to have the most sexually explicit packaging? There is no other means for a product to differentiate itself?
How am I the only person that understands this?
Because you don’t understand it, at least not the way some of us see it. In fact, I am just as astounded as you seem to be that you can’t see it my way. I find it incredible that someone could be so naive about this issue. But this is why we disagree and try to have civil discourse about our differences of opinion. Right?
p.s. weird code under the “Hit it” button.
Jane´s last blog ..Please Do Not Feed the Animals
Maybe I am naive. I dunno. But the thought of this product? It makes me sick to my stomach.
What’s next? The pill for girls who haven’t gotten their period yet? Maybe they can make a candy one of those, sort of like candy cigarettes.
I think I just had a brainstorm. Gotta go get a patent…
Stacey´s last blog ..Homemade Meatballs
Perhaps “naive” sounded too judgmental, and I didn’t mean it to. I’m just pointing out to Dan that he can’t believe that I and others don’t see it his way the same way that I can’t believe he doesn’t see it my way.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf
Page 10 has stats for 14 and under girls.
Jane´s last blog ..Please Do Not Feed the Animals
I dunno how I feel about this. In one respect, I don’t want my son having sex in three years (ACK!) but on the other hand? Condoms. Need them. He’ll have ‘em. Maybe not at twelve but seriously, he will NOT be one of those statistics. Just because we buy him condoms does NOT mean he’s getting our permission.
If only other people put their youngin’s on birth control.
The Domestic Goddess´s last blog ..Sh*t That Happened This Week
Jane, I think we’re arguing different points here. You’re saying teen pregnancy is bad, let’s help the problem.
I’m saying kiddie condoms aren’t the answer. Those numbers in the report, while interesting (and mathematically inaccurate (just add up the totals for the US on page 14: 70+38 does not equal 118)), show no correlation to condom use.
Privately I threw an argument to Jane that I think I should make public – and maybe Lora can answer this. Why is it that teen suicides occur in clusters? This cluster phenomenon is well documented, all across the United States.
But why does it happen? Is it because kids are impressionable, they’re exposed to a message, assimilate it and act on it?
How about all the to-do about female body image relative to magazines and television? If all of that didn’t exist, would women feel as compelled to starve themselves, exercise like mad, all in the hopes of attaining some impossible, photoshopped standard?
Marketing works, folks. If it didn’t, nobody would do it. Billions wouldn’t be spent this year on internet advertising if it didn’t influence behavior. Messages are absorbed. Woman get lipo and boob jobs and Botox. Kids absorb the message from other kids, not even peers necessarily, about suicide being a way out. And they absorb the message on MTV. And with the shows they watch, the magazines they read.
Somehow I’m being asked to believe that though all these other marketing and social messages are received, assimilated and acted upon, this one won’t be? They’ll see the sexy packaging and marketing campaign and their behavior won’t be influenced?
Seems pretty unlikely.
ARGH! I think Dan’s right for one point on this, and that’s revolved around the marketing.
Marketing is used to entice us, or the intended audience to buy a thing. Whatever that thing may be.
If the intention of the marketing here is for safety, don’t get pregnant, don’t get an STD, then why isn’t the box decorated with spore forming bacteria, crying babies with a “NO bar” over them, and stacks of money to indicate child support payments? How about a ulcered penis? Why not crabs?
Why isn’t the box utilitarian?
JenJen´s last blog ..Itsy Bitsy Bikini…But Yellow Isn’t My Color
I can’t tell you who won. All I can say is this makes me want to crawl into a dark hole and never come out.
But then again, I didn’t have sex until I was 19 and already on the pill. Perhaps if I’d started having crappy high school sex a bit earlier (most of the girls weren’t having any fun, from what I remember), I’d be less prudish about this.
It seems to me that part of the problem is that boys don’t wear condoms to begin with, and young girls, for a myriad of reasons, fall for this shit. Is this going to somehow make condom buying cool? Anything to reduce the episodes of ‘16 and Pregnant’ being created, because that show depresses the holy hell out of me.
I have passed along the versatile blogger award to you. Check it out! From the May 17th post. xoxo
I think that this product will fail because no kid is going to want to get the “small” version of this product.
And I do believe what Jane is saying. These kids need to be educated.
DrZibbs´s last blog ..Embarrassing Incident That Happened To Me At Chester County Hospital.
I just saw this article and thought of this post:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100624/D9GHJ53O0.html
I would not want my child’s school passing out prophylactics to my elementary school student without me knowing about it.
Imaginary child. Imaginary school. But you get my point.
Stacey´s last blog ..Food for Thought
Thanks for the link. My feelings on that story are mixed, believe it or not.
My biggest beef with the original topic of this post is the unseemliness of a company selling sex by making this product. For whatever altruism they claim to espouse in making these kiddie condoms, they’re marketing the product like they’re trying to sell sex to kids.
But the schools requiring counseling and specific information about abstinence I think is a good thing.
At the same time, if I child is showing up battered and bruised at school, smells like alcohol or weed, it’s incumbent on the school to inform someone – parents, authorities, someone, about what they’ve seen. But if a 3rd grader asks for condoms, it’s hush-hush?
Doesn’t make sense to me, that a 3rd grader’s parents wouldn’t be alerted if their son or daughter was asking for a condom.
dan´s last blog ..Just Sit Right Back and You’ll Hear a Tale…