In Which I Talk About Porn, and it's Not as Fun as it Sounds

Some of my students wrote on their terminal exams from last term that the internet causes unwanted pregnancies and spreads HIV/AIDS.  So in one of their first classes on return, I asked them by what mechanism the internet could possibly cause unwanted pregnancy or HIV.  Some of them giggled, which I do not encourage, I attempt to get them to not openly mock one another.  One young man, however, did have the courage to raise his hand and say, "Madam, sometimes people search for x-videos and this stimulates them to engage in bad things."

I was expecting that to be the rationale, and was prepared with some facts, always a good weapon to cut through arguments in which complex phenomena are explained away by simplistic assertions. So I compared birth rates between Tanzania (where porn is illegal) and Europe (where porn is legal and birthrates are declining). Then I pointed out that in Uganda, right across the border, porn is either legal or no one cares because I encountered a man on a rooftop bar in Kampala attempting to sell me porn. Uganda, rather famously for being the probably birthplace of HIV, has one of the lower rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Much lower than Tanzania, in fact.

This is actually a slightly specious argument, since the legality of porn may or may not be directly correlated with its consumption, and in fact, based on available purchase and search term data from the US, may be indirectly correlated with its legality. Since those areas with strong rules against porn consumption, that is, the areas under the heavy influence of Mormonism and other sects of Christianity that obsess over prohibiting what people do in bed, how, and with whom, have the highest porn consumption per capita. Though the variation isn't terribly huge, and it's really only Utah and Mississippi that have surprisingly high porn usage for their stereotypical religiosity. /cite(http://people.hbs.edu/bedelman/papers/redlightstates.pdf)

By the way, I can't find porn consumption data for East Africa. It would be interesting since in Tanzania people watch porn on their phones a lot, and I mean blatantly, and all ICT teachers have this slight problem with kids having porn on their flash drives.

My classroom of 70 odd students is not, however, the time or place to get into in-depth discussions of porn. It's not a classroom in which everyone feels comfortable and safe from the scorn of their colleagues, and a lot of them don't really speak English that well (and I do not know the non-offensive terms for sexuality in Kiswahili because I got that part of my vocabulary from motorcycle drivers) so I left the subject after pointing out that education and availability of contraceptives are much more of a major factor in birth rates and HIV infections, with a good emphasis on education of women (something studies consistently tell us is a major factor in birth rates) and a generous side of “please use condoms” 

As usual, I doubt that I actually convinced anyone of anything, but at least they heard something different from what they normally hear and it's something that is fact-based.  I'm just their computer teacher, I'm not sure what else I can do.