Josie, I respect and appreciate your decision to regulate what your children view from the mass media. In fact I think parents need to "turn off" mass media more and read and talk with their children more.
However I think banning something that was already in progress may have been counter-productive. I know that when I was a kid, my curiosity was enlivened more when my parents restricted something. Not being able to watch something or do something because "it's worldly and bad" or "because I said so" didn't cut it with me. Regarding sex, my father said nothing to me and my mother tried through that horrible pink Great Teacher book or the Young People Ask articles. I remember learning about birth in my 9th grade health class and I was red-faced with embarrassment, not because of the sensitive topic, but because I was the only one in the entire class that didn't know about intercourse. I had thought that a woman could get pregnant just by lying next to a man. (A few years before that I had asked how the doctor knew whether a baby was a boy or a girl, when the girl didn't have long hair yet....all I got from my parents was, "oh, isn't NYCkid cute?")
I rented "Juno" a couple of weeks ago and don't know what all the Oscar buzz was about...it was just OK in my opinion, but I do think that it's an excellent story for teaching children about the consequences of unplanned pregnancy and sex outside of a stable and committed relationship. (I argue however that we should all be careful about allowing mass media to "educate us," but it was a pretty good story, especially for our children in the U.S. where we have the highest teen pregnancy rates in all the developed countries). From my viewpoint, a parent could discuss with their children after viewing the film together, "see, look at all the problems that ensued because Juno and her boyfriend had unprotected sex and were not prepared for having children (in more ways than one)." Then a parent could explain that "see, you really must have a good job, a committed partner (preferably through marriage), and definitely NOT be in high school." While abstinence should be promoted, children in the U.S. need to be taught that if for any reason a teen engages in sex, condomns should always, always, always be used.
Anyway, I saw the film as not promoting sexual behavior in teens or abortion, but representing all the problems that occur when teens engage in sexual relationships and are not prepared for the consequences.
Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.
Best,
NYCkid
