Public university hosts website encouraging parents to let kids participate in ‘sexual play’

The University of California, Santa Barbara, hosts a website, which is apparently controlled by the sociology department, that encourages parents to allow their young children to participate in "sexual play."

What are the details?

The website, SexInfo Online, calls sexual play between kids — which the site reports is most common "between the ages of four and seven" — "completely normal," "generally harmless," and encourages parents to allow such behaviors.

According to the website, SexInfo Online is maintained by students "who have studied advanced topics in human sexuality."

One of the topics on the site, "Childhood Sexuality," expounds on how parents should handle what many would consider to be inappropriate touching between children.

A section on the website reads, "Children might display affection to their friends by hugging and kissing, or touching each other’s genitals, which is perfectly normal. Parents should not react in a negative way because children are just exploring."

"If a child is performing these activities excessively or in public, parents should sit down and talk with them about how these activities should be done in private versus of trying to thwart the activity altogether."

"Childhood Sexuality" also encourages parents to teach their children that masturbation is not "dirty or bad" but is a "private matter and should not be performed in public."

With regard to masturbation, parents are recommended to avoid "reacting with punishment and disapproval," since "it can lead to lifelong problems of shame and sexual guilt."

What about same-sex play?

The section also notes that even if children are engaging in same-sex sexual play, parents should "keep their reactions to such activities positive."

"As children age, however, their sexual play encounters are more often associated with peers of the same sex, since boys and girls tend to 'play separately,'" the passage adds. "Experts recommend that parents keep their reactions to such activities positive, since sexual play is normal and allows the child to develop into a sexually healthy adult. Children engaging in same-sex sexual play is not necessarily an indication of a homosexual identity, just as children engaging in other-sex sexual play is not necessarily an indication of heterosexual identities."

(H/T: The College Fix)