Sex offender lists are stupid per se. But did you know that the best represented age group on them is 14?

But that was before we let the special interest groups and politicians terrorize us about the “threat to our children.” Since then we have passed hundreds of ill-conceived pieces of legislation “to protect our children.” Now we are sacrificing our children on the very political altars that we helped build.

What was once considering a normal rite of passage, typical curiosity that the newly sexualized young have about themselves, their bodies, and the bodies of others, has become a heinous crime. Not long ago a curious adolescent or child, caught exploring, or playing doctor in the back yard, was given a talking-to, sent to bed early, and warned to not do it again — a warning most heeded for at least another few years, after which time warnings were useless. Today, it has been criminalized, and criminalized in a way far exceeding crimes of violence. A youth who has sex with another youth, even if voluntary, could well face legal sentences far worse than if they had killed their friend.

Please read the whole article at Classically Liberal. They have also collected a partial listing with relevant cases.

I for one think it’s kinda sad that even the author of the good and much needed article above thinks sending kids to bed without supper is a proper way to handle such situations. Not so long ago European parental guides suggested to let kids do whatever they want to do when it comes to sexuality because everything else would let them get the impression that sex is something bad and dirty.

Oh boy, I just read a column by Canadian author Cory Doctorow. He got a shitstorm of anger from teachers, students, parents, and librarians because he dared to write about a 17 year old boy having sex and drinking a beer. I really should know better by now but still… the fact how things like this are handled in North America never fails to amaze me. I know half of you guys stop reading here because you know what awaits you but that’s ok. Yes, I’m a smug eurofag and no, I can’t stop bashing North American countries for being so hypocritical, unprogressive and fucked up. So let’s make it short here: I know there are many people living in the US and Canada who are upset about this stuff just like I am. So if you’re a teenager and can’t stand the Christian censor machine who’s trying to control what you can read and think: Go and get some Youth lit from Europe. No matter if it’s Swedish, French, Dutch or German, many (sadly not all) of the great coming of age books released here are getting translated sooner or later and I never stumbled upon one that doesn’t have sex scenes ;)

My first young adult novel, Little Brother, tells the story of a kid named Marcus Yallow who forms a guerilla army of young people dedicated to the reformation of the US government by any means necessary. He and his friends use cryptography and other technology to subvert security measures, to distribute revolutionary literature, to liberate and publish secret governmental memoes, and humiliate government officials. Every chapter includes some kind of how-to guide for accomplishing this kind of thing on your own, from tips on disabling radio-frequency ID tags to beating biometric identity system to defeating the censorware used by your school network to control what kind of things you can and can’t see on the Internet. The book is a long hymn to personal liberty, free speech, the people’s right to question and even overthrow their government, even during wartime.

Marcus is 17, and the book is intended to be read by young teens or even precocious tweens (as well as adults). Naturally, I anticipated that some of the politics and technology in the story would upset my readers. And it’s true, a few of the reviewers were critical of this stuff. But not many, not overly so. What I didn’t expect was that I would receive a torrent of correspondence and entreaties from teachers, students, parents, and librarians who were angry, worried, or upset that Marcus loses his virginity about two-thirds of the way through the book (secondarily, some of them were also offended by the fact that Marcus drinks a beer at one point, and a smaller minority wanted to know why and how Marcus could get away with talking back to his elders).

read, read, read!

because they fear nothing more than a freethinking youth

Picture This! Entertainment and its sister label Picture This! Home Video have shuttered, closing its doors on September 29 according to a message posted to its website. Doug Witkins founded film company DW Diversified 25 years ago and entered the distribution market with off-shoot Picture This! thirteen years ago with a gala launch at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. His aim was licensing North American independent LGBT films to distributors and networks around the world. In 1998, the company established its domestic wing, which has released almost 100 features and shorts theatrically via home entertainment and TV in North America.

The labels championed gay genre films as well as “coming-of-age” stories, including “Garcon Stupide,” “Come Undone,” “Clara’s Summer,” and the “Boys Briefs” series. It is unclear as the company navigates bankruptcy court what will be the fate of its library. More about this at IndieWIRE

US-based toy retailer Toys"R"Us has been reprimanded for gender discrimination following a complaint filed by a group of Swedish sixth graders about the store’s 2008 Christmas catalogue. According to the youngsters, the Toys"R"Us Christmas catalogue featured “outdated gender roles because boys and girls were shown playing with different types of toys, whereby the boys were portrayed as active and the girls as passive”. Thumbing through the catalogue, 13-year-old Hannes Psajd explained that he and his twin sister had always shared the same toys and that he was concerned about the message sent by the Toys"R"Us publication. “Small girls in princess stuff…and here are boys dressed as super heroes. It’s obvious that you get affected by this.” – Read the full article at The Local

Hey Koes, it’s a pony! ;) Photo made by Cheatara

I’m well aware of what kind of comments will be posted by some of our readers but I don’t really care. I’m so sick of these stupid gender clichés. You like boys to be “boyish”? Well, good for you but that doesn’t mean they want to be boyish just because you or the society expects them to be. We should get rid of the whole concept of acting masculine or feminine. The case above isn’t really special for Sweden but I’m glad to see that this Swedish attitude comes to Germany too (even if some Swedes might already be annoyed by all the political correctness ;p).

UPDATE: Boing Boing had a post about this too earlier today and the first 2 comments there made my day. Sorry America, you just got pwned ;o) On a more serious note: Stop thinking of teenagers as brainless mutants, kthx.

An ‘enterprising and creative’ 17-year-old with Asperger syndrome convinced British aviation officials that he was launching a new airline. Posing as a visionary global entrepreneur — his email .sig files read ‘American Global Group, 35 Countries, 22 Languages, One Team’ — he used phony websites and human engineering to arrange meetings with airport directors and book a local appearance for the 300-person US cast of ‘High School Musical.’

Don’t get a teen boy bored. He might come up with funny ideas.

Tait, who pretended he was in his twenties, even flew to Jersey to attend a 1½-hour long meeting with the director of its airport. Their talks were considered promising enough for a further meeting to be arranged, which was due to be held next week. Other air industry bosses found themselves dealing by telephone or e-mail with Tait’s fellow executives, David Rich and Anita Dash, who proposed to launch a cut-price Channel Islands-based airline servicing most of Europe…  "Some of the things he said were the sort of things that were indicative that there might have been some substance to his claims," said Coupar. "If they were real then there would have been opportunities for us to expand our business and that’s not the sort of thing we are going to ignore."

Tait also made approaches, with varying levels of success, to other airlines, including Titan Airways and Aer Arann. When he made contact with Jersey airport, his patter was convincing enough to effect a 90-minute face-to-face meeting with Julian Green, the airport’s director, who said last night: "Jersey airport can confirm it has had discussions with Adam Tait over recent weeks about an ambitious network of services between Jersey, the UK and Europe. Full article at Times Online (Story via Boing Boing, Photo via Kloland)

Britain has an unhealthy Relationship with its Children

As far as annoying, hackneyed phrases go, ‘political correctness gone mad’ takes the number one slot. But every so often you come across a verifiable fact which prompts you to blurt it out, unwillingly, in the same way you yell when you stub your toe. Health and safety regulations affecting children’s playtime usually do the job. Ashburton Junior School, for instance, managed to provoke a barrel-load of Daily Mail bile when it ordered children not to play in the playground 15 minutes before class in case they get hurt last year. Today, local government leaders have called on parents not to wrap their children up in cotton wool, in a carefully planned press campaign designed to rid the public of the idea that local councils are responsible for the layers of health and safety regulations which affect children.

It’s insane and hugely depressing that we even have to talk about this. It goes without saying that children’s playgrounds should have ‘adventure equipment’ –tree houses and zip wires and the like – without councils having to churn out proud press releases to go with them. But we do have to talk about it, and it all stems from our strange and unhealthy relationship with childhood.

As a country, we have a very weird relationship with children. We have turned them into a depository for our better nature. All children are now considered innocence and perfection rolled into one. While we – adults and young adults (now known commonly as hoodies) – are the opposite: evil-minded and untrustworthy. Obviously, adults are all potentially dangerous. But we have started to consider them as if they are innately dangerous. For the record, children are usually not angels. They are, in fact, as cruel and manipulative as any adult. They’re just cuter. Some modern psychology even sees them as far less moral than adults, their social brains having not been formed yet. 

Read on…

Gaming companies are struggling with the issue of how to control the content in their games, without silencing a vocal minority of gamers. In many states, gay and lesbian couples can now marry, but they can’t talk about it online if publishers censor the very words used to describe their sexual orientation.

Why is the issue of sexual orientation so explosive that the very act of saying the word "gay" or "lesbian" is sometimes against the rules? Bioware found itself on the wrong end of this controversy when a community manager gracelessly began locking threads that discussed the issue, and then claimed that there simply were no gay or lesbian characters in Star Wars. Maybe those words don’t exist in galaxies far, far, away, but the characters often do: Bioware themselves created a game with a character who laid down with another woman as with a man. Sony was a part of a similar controversy after the words "gay" and "Jew" were edited out of Home, the company’s social online service for PS3 owners. And Microsoft made headlines when the company banned a player who self-identified as a lesbian, claiming any notice of sexual orientation was against the terms of service.

In some ways it’s unfair to take the world of gaming to task for its immature handling of gay and lesbian issues. After all, it’s hard to find a game that takes any kind of relationship seriously. This is an art form that knows how to show two people killing each other nearly perfectly, but seems to turn into a bunch of fifth-graders when dealing with a kiss, much less when that kiss is between two men or two women. It’s clear that something has to give, although companies only seem to pay attention after receiving the wrong kind of attention for their policies.

Read on…

In a new trend spreading across America, teens are sending nude or semi-nude pictures to one another on their mobile phones in a practice called “sexting”. But what started out as risqué fun among adolescents has spread fast, and is starting to lead to serious consequences. Recently, teenagers have been arrested on child pornography – Read on…

Research conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy last month revealed that 20% of teens in the States say they have sent or posted lewd photos or video of themselves. According to the national study, most teenagers who were sending the explicit messages were sending them to boyfriends or girlfriends, while others said they were sending the pictures in a bold move to secure a date, or to someone they had got to know online.

A new trend? Are you fucking kidding me? OK, I’ll let the Captain Obvious thing beside and focus on WTF!? We have talked about something similar in the milkboard just yesterday and since I’m a lazy butt I’ll just copy & paste what I’ve said there: First of all I think it’s strange how everything with someone under 18 is called child porn in the US & UK. I mean a 17 year old boy isn’t a child in any definition. I don’t know exactly about other countries but in Germany you’re called a "child" by law as long as you’re under 14. Besides that I see nothing criminal in a 15 year old boy making nude shots with his mobile phone for his girlfriend – but still he can get in trouble because he produced so called "child porn".

How is this protecting the boy? What’s next? Getting jailed for "self rape" when you get caught wanking? They tell you they want to protect the children but what they do is criminalizing them, it just makes no sense at all.

But why, you will ask, are the politicians doing bullshit like this nevertheless? Well, here is a theory: Because they fear them. I read about that in an article in a blog written by a BBC reporter where the author cites a Finnish study about youth crime (the study isn’t accessible anymore unfortunately):

The argument is that economic globalisation has substantially eroded a state’s capacity to govern directly and so "intervention in the lives of socially deviant children" emerges as a "mechanism whereby the state attempts to establish or sustain its political authority". To put it another way, politicians demonise children in order to disguise their own weaknesses.

The youth, which still knows the meaning of freedom, could bring down the government, even the whole political system if they don’t suppress them and their lust for life? Are they creating a new era of Victorian prudery because they fear to reap what they sow by exploiting the whole planet to enrich a few while millions starve. Vilifying sex to protect the globalisation? Yes, it might sound melodramatic but in makes sense in a creepy way.

Prolly not. The “initiation rituals” in this school are a little bit… strange, but to call it a “Sex Scandal” seems a bit over the top.

Concern over ’sex games’ at Swedish high school: Chocolate covered torsos and co-ed banana eating are just a couple of things troubling officials about new student initiation rituals at a basketball oriented high school in northern Sweden. — thelocal.se

Read the full article here.

I would say they had more fun in Denmark ,o)

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