Zone Interdite unveils on January 9, 2022 a new issue: “Adolescents and sexuality: what dangers lie in wait for them?” New places of seduction, but also new dangers. How to protect teens?
Sunday January 9, 2022 at 9:10 p.m. on M6, Ophélie Meunier unveils a Forbidden Zone devoted to sexuality on the internet, focusing on adolescents. We discover a very wide range of phenomena: the discovery of porn, but also the exchange of photos, the extortion of intimate photos, flirting but also possible harassment. The panel is full, and many protagonists are interviewed: teens first, but also members of the educational community, parents, shrinks and sex therapists.
In 2020, according to figures from La Dépêche, 35% of those under 30 (compared to 16% among all French people) have already sent someone a image of them with a sexual connotation. Ophélie Meunier answered aufeminin’s questions about this documentary. Why the choice of such a subject? She describes “A trend that is emerging, and we want to understand it. We must help our teenagers to grow well; and we hear parents confide in us their concerns about the behavior of their teenagers on the internet. They wonder how to react”, explains the journalist. This documentary “is for parents, even grandparents because sometimes communication is easier with grandparents”, in the first place, she adds.
“It’s a mass phenomenon, it’s huge”, specifies Ophélie Meunier, who continues by revealing that on the side of the police, concerning the legal problems related to these practices, “there are so many cases that arrive in their offices of investigation that they are unfortunately obliged to prioritize, even if everything is serious”.
Communication as the best defense
How, in the face of this alarming information, succeed in protecting teenagers? This documentary gives the keys, through the testimonies of a father of two boys, of a sex therapist who intervenes in the classes, of associative volunteers.
Communication is the key: in the documentary, we discover this rather enlightening testimony of a father who shows that prohibiting is not the right solution. Indeed, this type of content will arrive through friends, or through an occasion outside the home. “Parents, even if you don’t feel like it, or think your child is far from all of this, somehow they will face it.” from entering college, warns Ophélie Meunier. It is therefore safer to take the initiative and lead to an open discussion with your teenager, to warn him and provide the means to sort through the information he will receive and the images he will encounter. The word is essential, “we must do everything to arm the teenagers”, Ophélie Meunier analysis.
Teens are expected to have three mandatory college and high school sex education sessions annually. However, few establishments respect this rule. “Teenagers must be fed information and prevention from the outside” of the family unit. “Everyone is helpful in prevention, and everyone should be doing it”, says Ophélie Meunier. In short, parental control via applications is interesting but not sufficient to protect them.
Young people also have the keys
Something to keep in mind, however: the paradigm shift in the discovery of sexuality. Online sexuality is “a new form of sexuality” to use the words of a young girl interviewed on the show. Today, what happens online is an integral part of “real life”: “It is important not to believe that the real world and the virtual world are two parallel worlds”. Internet allows an acceleration of current phenomena. The documentary, which sometimes takes a rather alarmist tone, however reminds us that the hypersexualization of society is everywhere, that too young exposure to pornography is dangerous, but that adults have the keys and that it is impossible to do so. reverse. We also note that young people defend themselves, with their means and in a brilliant way, as the Stop Fisha association proves, whose remarkable work is to be highlighted.
If your teenager is facing problems of sexual harassment on the internet, blackmail, or if you want to learn about the precautions to take online in this subject, the e-childhood association, which appears in the documentary, can help you.
Missions: Mathilde is an expert in subjects related to women’s rights and health. Addicted to Instagram and Twitter, never stingy with a good …