Fun Facts on Teenwire.com?

By Marcie Barnes

(This post is part of an assignment for the class I am taking, Global Impact of New Communication Technologies at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I will be posting articles about things I read on my classmates' blogs, and talking about how they relate to health, if possible!)

I was perusing my classmate Tragi Griggs blog, Save It today and was somewhat amused by her 'worst pick' from October 8: Planned Parenthood’s teen web site Teenwire. I say 'amused' because of the articles from the site that she cited: "what is the proper way to feel my girlfriends boobs" and “Does swallowing sperm make you fat?” Hm, interesting reading, sure, but I wonder if their website may benefit from sectioning some of the content to age-appropriate readers? I actually thought the site had a lot of useful information for teens, and granted the two above referenced articles were based on questions submitted by readers, but as a parent I would like to see this site control the readership by age, perhaps?

I realize that kids have a lot of questions and they are best left answered by knowledgeable adults than from "the grapevine", and of course it would be nice if more knowledgeable adults were involved with kids to answer such questions, I just have a hard time with the younger teens being exposed to these kinds of articles (and not really being mature enough to handle the information). Teens run the range from 12ish to 20ish (and beyond, perhaps) - there is such a huge gap in the maturity level to consider, here.

Another striking tidbit from Traci's post: "Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider. (Stats from Concerned Women For America.)" - wow. Although I largely agree with any human's right to make their own choices, I am disturbed by the numbers, and I wonder how much quality education in this arena is really lacking. Traci is clearly trying to affect change through education.

Have I made a hot topic yet? What do you think?