Social Media, Sexual Media

Date Posted : Tuesday, 22 Nov 2011

Where social media is under discussion, there is interest. When social media ventures into the subject of sex, interest is an understatement. When Internews held a roundtable to discuss whether social media is sexual media, a debate raged on, triggered by pictures of couples having sex at a public park and young girls dancing provocatively in a concert that had made rounds on several social networking sites.

The “yes” crowd argued that bad parenting is to blame for the way young people use social networking sites. Mrs. Mabel Odima, a sociology expert from Daystar University, said that parents play the biggest role in impacting good behavior to their children. If parents spent less time at work and more time at home, they would be able to raise children who have moral integrity.

The “no” group countered that social media is too amorphous to be regulated.
Either way, where does safe sex messaging come in? – given HIV and other STI’s are spread through unsafe sex.

What do you think? How sexual is social media? How easily does a facebook flirtation lead to physical contact? We look forward to your comments: