Kids and sex

What happens when protection for kids unreasonably restricts freedoms for adults? For example, when Internet filtering software interferes with adults -- as well as non-adult -- access to information about sex? A while back I blogged about how my blog was blocked as inappropriate by the filtering software used by the New York State Thruway Service Plazas. In that case I don't even see how children are being protected, but surely the harm they could be exposed to is minimal compared to the limitations on the freedom of adults who want to do their work, entertain themselves or get information.

What is the difference between the kind of sex play or exploration that kids naturally do, and inappropriate sexual interaction? I was reading in "Everything you never wanted your kids to know about sex," that sex play and experimentation is pretty natural, and that the key is that it not become coercive.

I think lots of people actually feel differently about older teenagers having sex and younger teenagers having sex. And they certainly feel differently about either of those groups having sex than they do about "kids" or "children" having sex. What is the cut off line between being a 'kid' and not being a kid?

And if so, what kind and how much? For example, does a child need to be protected from sexually suggestive New Yorker cartoon (I saw one recently that showed three people in a bed together, and another that showed internet porn). And how do those needs change with the age of the child? And what, exactly are the dangers to which the images expose the child?

Four fifth graders had sex in an unattended classroom, posting a fifth student as a lookout. Click here for the story on CNN.

Four of the five students have been charged with felony obscenity in juvenile court and the lookout was charged as an accessory.

What do you think? Is this sex play among pre-adolescents or is it felony obscenity? (The sex was had in front of about 10 other students.) What's the story here?