SexEd.com: Values and norms in web‐based sexuality education

Abstract

The sexual values and norms transmitted to adolescents through school‐based sexuality education programs have been noted and critiqued by an interdisciplinary pool of researchers. With the increasing availability of the Internet to many American adolescents, the opportunities it provides for discreet and independent exploration, and the virtual lack of regulation of information provided by web sites, the Internet is emerging as a unique and critical site of sexuality education. This work analyzes the values and norms transmitted to adolescents via 52 sexuality education web sites, drawing parallels to its school‐based counterpart and interrogating the reliance of all forms of sexuality education on a problem‐focused, gendered, and narrowly‐bounded discourse of adolescent sexuality.