By Eric Morales
Karen Rayne is a professor that teaches and explores a subject that might make most people blush. You guessed it: Dr. Rayne talks about sex. However, she doesn’t just talk about sex, she talks about talking about sex. In other words, Dr. Rayne tries to help people become comfortable talking about sex, and in being able to address important issues in sexuality. Currently, Dr. Rayne is preparing for a panel at the 2010 SXSW Interactive.
At SXSW, Rayne will hold a panel discussion dealing in issues of teenagers and social media such as Facebook, MySpace and other popular social media interfaces. Although the subject is not a simple one, Rayne suggests that there are important issues that can be addressed immediately such as the age verification practices. Rayne, however, understands making improvements will be no easy task: “The biggest media-specific issue I see is how to determine age via the Internet (other than clicking on the box “Yes, I’m over 13 or 18”). Doing this without violating the privacy of adults is complicated,” said Rayne.
More important, perhaps, is educating teenagers on the proper use of social media. According to Rayne, teenagers need to be educated on “appropriate online interaction and guidance on how to self-moderate and interact effectively and safely.”
The perceived problems that Rayne offers solutions to with teenagers and social media, however, are merely an extension of problems that already exist with teenagers and sexuality in general. Some of these problems persist well into adulthood, as one may notice when reading Dr. Rayne’s blog. Rayne states that students of all ages remain ignorant to many topics, which may be in large part due to taboos and discomfort in speaking frankly and openly. It seems many questions go unanswered because they were never asked to begin with. Thankfully, Dr. Rayne covers topics as light-hearted as “super-hero reproduction” to topics as serious and life threatening as rape and sexual abuse and offers a safe environment in which to grow and understand such personal topics.
Keep an eye out for her panel during SXSW 2010.