Sex Ed In Cyberspace

(CBS)  If the name doesn't grab your attention, the opening montage will.

But this isn't pornography; it's a provocative podcast that shoves sex-ed into the 21st century, starring a PTA mom with a past, CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports.

"This is the Midwest Teen Sex Show. This week we're talking about parents," Host Nikol Hasler says.

Hasler talks matter-of-factly about things that make most parents cringe, such as birth control, first-time sex, and dating.

"If you are in junior high and you are dating someone out of high school, he's a pedophile, and pedophilia is a disease," Hasler says in one show.

The mother of three from Waukesha, Wisc., says she's able to do because she learned sex-ed the hard way -- when she got pregnant at 18 after a one-night-stand.

"One birth control method we don't recommend is the 'pull and pray.' That's the reason I have two of my three kids," Hasler said.

That kind of brutal honesty has made the Midwest Teen Sex Show one of the most popular health podcasts on the Web - with more than 60,000 subscribers tuning into to the twice-monthly episodes.

Some of her upcoming shows are going to be homosexuality in high school and porn.

Hasler says: "We're encouraging both boys and girls to be responsible for having safe sex. And we're also telling them that they don't necessarily have to have sex at all."

A scene from one episode involves a girl telling her mom: "There's something I've been wanting to tell you."

"Oh, my god. You're pregnant," the mother replies.

"No, mom. I'm not pregnant," the girl says. "I'm gay."

Filmed on a shoestring, the show is the brainchild of Hasler's high school classmate, aspiring filmmaker Guy Clark.

"We're presenting it in a way that maybe it's not such a big deal," Clark, the show's director, said. "It's okay to be curious about it; it's actually kinda funny."

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Read more on the Midwest Teen Sex Show on Couric & Co. blog.

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Although this racy approach to sex-ed may make parents nervous, a recent study found abstinence programs that preach "just say no," just don't work.

Sex educator Erika Pluhar says there's a place for this "in your face" approach to teenage sexuality.

"A lot of parents have difficulty having these dialogues with kids," Pluhar said. "I would want them to be dialogue starters, rather than stop, period, end of sentence."

One group of Chicago-area teens gave the show a big thumbs up.

"I was impressed at how honest it was," said high school senior Jack Dengel. "I mean, they were explaining, they weren't preaching."

Creators say their ideas come from viewers themselves: teens with age old questions, getting answers in a whole new way.

[amien1-2009]

The fabulous folks at the Midwest Teen *** Show are helping us announce the winners of our Fresh Focus: *** Ed Video Contest on January 22nd.

Young people from around the country have sent in videos about their own ***-ed or the ***-ed they wished they''d had. They''ve poured out their hearts and thoughts about how desperately they wish adults would talk openly and honestly about *** and sexuality.

Anyone can vote on their favorites from our top ten. View some here:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/01/09/vote-now-***-ed-101-and-my-***-ed-experience
and then go and vote!!

[rf35]

nutsie11,
I think you have me confused with denn034 or someone...I think the podcast idea is a good thing. I tended to avoid churches even before I realized Christianity was a mostly Roman construct designed to re-enforce the slave mentality of their slaves and most of the stories about Jesus are obvious rip-offs of the Egyptian Horus myths.

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature...It is the opium of the people."

[ashlynnk1]

I am confused as to why all the killing goes on?

[realitytime1]

Hey, I just found this on the MTSS site. It is going to have the right-wingers in a tizzy.

www.abstinencethecondom.com

Now this is what choosing Abstinence should be all about!!!!

[badfish911]

ok
people who say "ROTFL"
ARE GAY

[rf35]

denn034...ya know what, nevermind, people like you aren''t worth the effort.

[nolalou]

denn034, your post is exactly why we need *** education in school! If high school aged kids got their information from IDIOTS like you , they''d be in worse shape then they already are!

[tomanyt]

Two thumbs up for Nikol Hasler!!!!

[michellem99-2009]

I am a south paw/left pawed. Teacher NEVER forced me as IT would not work. My room mate is a leftie and he told me they tryed to make him use right paw..it did not work.
There are mums who won''t talk about this with their children, They think it is taboo. I was visiting Mum years ago and she asked me about my then 14 year old sister who was moody.*.She lives in yer home and ye don''t know why..*She never even bought her items she would need . I asked about if she had her first period*,did ye talk about it with her. no ye did not.* Mum was dumb..My sister got her first period and I gave her the items I had. Yes in my day the birds and bees were not talked about.It should. I was not raised in the church. Children should not have children. I am the reason that mum had to quit school,marry. She did not graduate with her class of 54. They need to know sexx ed.

[tomanyt]

MyIDonCBS..."2. For reasons that should be obvious, children do not make the best parents..." Neither do some adults.