Porn-Maker Praises Planned Parenthood's Teenwire Web Site
By Penny Starr
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
March 13, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - David Mech, or David Pounder as he's known in pornography circles, said that Planned Parenthood's Web site for teens, Teenwire.com, is an excellent source for young people to learn about what he considers the benefits of viewing pornography. Mech contacted Cybercast News Service after reading its report about Teenwire.
"Planned Parenthood is an excellent organization that helps people by focusing on how people actually are behaving (i.e., having sex, watching porn, doing drugs, etc.), as opposed to helping people based on how they should be behaving (abstaining from sex, watching the news, eating healthy, etc.)," Mech, a pornography producer and actor, told Cybercast News Service.
"Men in their teens are accessing porn, and I think it's a normal thing," he said.
Mech, who said he was first exposed to pornography at 13 or 14 through a friend, agrees with Planned Parenthood's approach of promoting pornography "as an alternative to having sex," especially if Teenwire.com's advice on "outercourse" helps reduce sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.
He added that in today's society, where young people are encouraged to earn a college degree before marriage, Teenwire.com is providing content, including tips on viewing pornography that modern teens need.
"It used to be that people got married at 13 or 14 years old," Mech said. "It's unrealistic (today) to expect people not to have sex before marriage."
That's why, Mech said, sex education shouldn't rely on an abstinence-only approach.
"I think teens are going to have sex regardless," Mech said. "Comprehensive sex education is the way to go, and if pornography is included as part of the program, that's okay.
"Planned Parenthood is doing an exceptional job," Mech said.
John Haney, psychotherapist with Crossroads Counseling and Associates in Austin, Texas, has worked with many teens and adults who have compulsive sexual disorders. He disagrees with Mech that viewing pornography is a good way to learn about human sexuality.
"It's normal for (teenage) boys to have an interest in sex, but it's not healthy for them to explore it that way," Haney told Cybercast News Service. "I think if a teen is turning to pornography to get information about sexuality, they are going to get a distorted and incomplete view."
Distorted, he said, because most pornography depicts male domination and women as sexual objects rather than human beings, and incomplete, because sexual acts aren't put into perspective.
"(Pornography) completely neglects the emotional aspects of intimacy," Haney said. "There is more to sex than the physical aspect."
He added that viewing pornography also give teens - especially young girls - an unrealistic and even destructive way of viewing themselves and their sexuality.
Mech claims that even if pornography is still a taboo in today's society, it is accepted as mainstream - and harmless - by most people.
"For every one person addicted to pornography there are a thousand people who view pornography responsibly," Mech told Cybercast News Service.
Haney said teens should be taught that sex is a normal and a "God-given" fact of life, but that responding to their interest in the topic requires more than relying on the kind of advice found on Teenwire.com. For instance, the Teenwire Web site includes the following:
"There are a few things you should know about the images you might see. First of all, many people enjoy pornography alone or with a partner as part of sex play. People have different ideas of what is arousing, and there are many different kinds of porn that appeal to people's different interests."
"Curiosity about sex is normal," Haney said. "And we shouldn't shame kids about an interest in sex, but I don't think pornography is the way to educate them."
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