While some could argue that porn and sex education can be somewhat tangentially related to each other, it's probably safe to say that when you're searching through, say, PornHub, you're not looking for sex ed. One porn site, however, is redirecting some of its traffic to a series of sex education videos. More specifically, it's redirecting all of its traffic from the state of Utah to sex ed videos.
On Monday, Utah lawmakers rejected a bill that would have given parents the option of opting their children into more comprehensive sex education. In response, xHamster sent traffic from the site from Utah to PG-13 sex ed videos.
"Beginning immediately, we’re rerouting all xHamster traffic from Utah to our comprehensive sex ed series, The Box,” xHamster wrote in a blog post. "We’ve been working on The Box since last year, producing videos based on questions submitted by porn viewers."
xHamster also said that it is responding both to the rejection of the bill (which would give parents options other than abstinence-only sex ed), as well as to Utah lawmakers' attitudes towards porn. Last year, the state officially declared porn a "public health hazard."
Now, any Utahn who goes to xHamster's website is greeted with a pop-up notification saying, "Utahns consume the most porn per capita of any U.S. state. Can we turn the thirstiest state in the nation into the smartest?" If you live in Utah and don't want to see a sex ed video, however, you can click the option to continue to site instead. (We should also note that while Utah did consume the most porn in 2009, there's no recent data that indicates this is still true.)
The Box, xHamster's sex ed series, features answers to user-submitted questions, such as "What Is Queefing," and a primer on the female orgasm. xHamster also emphasised, however, that it's not meant to be the only form of sex ed a person receives.
"While we love porn, we don’t think that it should be relied on for sex ed any more than Star Wars is a substitute for science class," the blog post reads.
xHamster isn't the only porn site to have expanded into sex ed — earlier this month, PornHub also announced its foray into sexual health education. It remains to be seen just how effective these efforts will be, but more building comprehensive sex ed options is a pretty good step, in our eyes.
The gap between what we learned in sex ed and what we're learning through sexual experience is big — way too big. So we're helping to connect those dots by talking about the realities of sex, from how it's done to how to make sure it's consensual, safe, healthy, and pleasurable all at once. Check out more here.