I remember being in elementery school, sneaking into my friends dads room to see the new thing she found. Her dads Playboys. And we sat there wondering when we were going to look like that.

In Jr. High and high school VC Andrews was far more graphic then anything in those Playboys. My mom was worried about the content in Sweet Valley High and Sugar & Spice but never thought twice about Flowers in the Attic or Clan of the Cavebear.

I tend to agree with iSm, buying magazines and giving it to kids or putting it under thier beds is a bit creepy. Kids probably still sneak through their parents rooms looking for stuff like we did when we were kids. Why not stash a couple in there?

REALLY NOT SAFE FOR WORK...or for anyone for that matter

I suppose in this digital age, parents may need to worry more about kids stumbling across their own home-made porn...

And that would be more tramautic then being given porn by their parents.

Yes, I agree with this. When I said under their bed, I hadn't really thought about the creepy aspect (actually I hadn't thought about the entire subject at all until this thread). I simply meant leave it in a place where they are likely to snoop around. I totally get the "Ewww, mom left me porn" reaction that any normal teen would have.

As far as staying completely out of it and letting them discover porn all on their own, there is so much of it readily available. Kids grow up with the internet. They are going to know how to find porn by the time they are ten. I just don't think that porn is appropriate for that age. I don't think that most of it is appropriate for kids five or six years older. I guess my thinking on it is that if you make milder porn (or teen romance books :p) available then it satisfies what they are curious for without them encountering women fvcking horses.

On a side note, I've never really gotten the whole porn thing. It generally either makes me laugh or grosses me out. I just think people generally look either really goofy or really fake while having porn sex. The Song of Solomon thing Strangler Lewis posted above is way hotter than a housewife screwing the pizza guy or whatever. Maybe I'm weird that way. Though some porn borders on art. Intricate bondage pictures, japanese knot tying like Euro mentioned. Those are cool, but most porn just seems lame.

Now, knowing your kids are going to see horse ****ing at a young age how do you have the conversation about why it is wrong?

Honey, it is ok to want to **** horses but you really shouldn't because horses don't have the mens rea to establish consent. So, if you're interested in horses it is important that you let the horse be the instigator of every action. Don't **** the horse, let the horse **** you. It's all about respect.

I had two older brothers whose private collections taught me everything I needed to know. It was mostly Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, and (for some reason, this seemed like the most subversive of the lot) National Lampoon.

When I got older and encountered the hardcore stuff (first via the extremely seedy Pussycat Cinema located not far from my college campus, later through the magic of video rentals), I found that the majority of it had exactly the wrong effect - it was the opposite of erotic for me. This goes triply so for the ghastly circus act/ freak show sites that seem to proliferate on the brave new world of the web nowadays.

I used to just adore the softcore arty European stuff that played on Cinemax. Just enough entertainment value that I could pretend I had more than one reason for watching. Yep, I like my smut with a plot.

Call me wimpy, but that's as much as I care to say about this topic.

The very first image of a topless woman I remember seeing was in a copy of National Lampoon. She was holding a large wheel of gouda cheese (I don't remember the context, just the picture).

In the seventh grade I traded my VHS copy of one of the early WrestleMania's for two Playboy centerfolds, once of which was one of the Price is Right models.

But when it comes to "pornography" our society seems to take a view similar to profanity.

It is ok to make someone think it but not make them see it or hear it. So you can say "f*ck" in the newspaper, which makes all of you mentally think the word but not to actually print the word. Same with graphic sex. I certainly learned more at a young age about the mechanics of sex from Jean Auel than from the pornography I'd seen.

I think there certainly are some gender differences for porn. I think most is made as a male masterbatory aids, readymade visual fantasies. Most straight porn rarely shows more than a guys penis in frame, making it easy to identify as one's own (especially if larger or girthier - for this is all fantasy afterall). I think most contemporary porn has dispensed with pretense of plot and goes straight into the act - I suspect this also is geared to men, who in viewing porn are all ready to masterbate, and probably not in much need to have something, "get them in the mood."

OMG! I'm going to file this under conversations that I NEVER want to have with my kids! I just want to put the porn blocks on the computer, leave the sex books laying around and then never think about it again. Unless they happen to ask about horse fvcking, which hopefully by that time I'll have an answer already sorted out in my head.

I have a three year old and a one year old, I shouldn't have to think about porn!