By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-14 07:17

A 17-year-old high school student raped six girls within a three-month period in Guangxi. Four of the girls were younger than 14 years old. The boy confessed that he was "influenced by porn movies" he watched online. However, an expert in the region said the boy "might have suffered from psychological pressure and had no way to release his sexual desires, hence the consequences."

The psychology professor said the boy's realization of the bad influence of porn movies proved that he was fully aware of right from wrong but "only because he could not control his physiological urges that he committed the crime." Therefore, the expert concluded: "The boy needs sex education."

It is understandable that a psychologist would want to flaunt his knowledge of psychoanalysis. But attributing a crime of rape to "merely uncontrollable physiological desire" is sheer nonsense. According to the professor's logic, even if the boy has a righteous attitude toward porn influences, he will not be able to control his physiological impulses because of a lack of sex education and will unavoidably "take the path to crime".

Such an outrageous crime of devastating little girls was thus played down as an instinctive physical desire. One could not refrain from asking: what kind of a trash theory is the "expert" selling?

Delinquency has been a much talked about issue in recent years. There have been frequent reports of youths killing their parents because of rebellion against discipline, stabbing schoolmates in trivial disputes, committing robbery to obtain a few yuan for Internet cafe fees, and abducting and selling young girls for ransom.

There are all kinds of views to explain the phenomenon. The main one being the social environment where yearning for material comforts is rampant and the pursuit for physiological pleasures transgress moral limits.

Exposure to sex, crimes and violence in the mass media, and on websites play their part in polluting the minds of youngsters.

However, "experts" often direct their accusations at parents, saying that they rather than the young are to blame. They accuse parents of being too harsh disciplining their children so that they become unsociable and rebellious and try to seek solace away from home, hence the tendency to commit crimes.

The experts' prescription: "Respect the kids, become their friends and give them sex education."

As far as the analysis is concerned, what the experts say is not without some merit. The problem, however, is that whenever a case of delinquency takes place, these experts always focus on the responsibilities between parents and children rather than analyze the bad social influences.

They seldom tell the young about their shameful conduct. Nor do they tell them that resorting to bad influences is self-degeneration. In this way, these experts impart the wrong message that whatever crime or sin the young commit, they need not take the blame.

Man by nature seeks physical pleasure. But enjoying such pleasure should be confined to certain ethical boundaries. For youngsters, who generally lack self-restraint, they must be taught about ethical behavior and the sense of shame.

If we put excessive emphasis on "respecting" children and neglect their development of a sense of ethnical responsibility, we are spoiling them.

As for sex education, it helps teenagers learn how to protect themselves physiologically in adolescence, but it plays no fundamental role in preventing sex crimes.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/14/2007 page10)