The impact of explicit online content is immense; it isn’t limited to teenage boys; it isn’t just “somebody else’s kids;” and the effects go far beyond those teens who directly consume it, affecting the essential fabric of teen culture.

Wes: Over the last three years Double Take has commented several times on the dramatic rise in teen use of explicit online content (EOC). It was, therefore, decidedly quaint when the Kansas Legislature sought earlier in the year to criminalize the teaching of broader sex education in schools.

In reality, the primary sex educator in Kansas and across America isn’t a teacher with a self-manufactured poster. It’s the Internet, featuring in living color the most explicit visual material imaginable, free for the asking, three mouse clicks from any unfiltered computer, smartphone or tablet. And believe me, most are unfiltered.

It’s hard to research the impact this is having on our teens, and any attempt to do so seems to end in a smirk-worthy failure. Case in point: A recent study in Canada found that 40 percent of all teenage boys had used porn, which the authors noted to be an uptick. Uh huh. Anyone who talks to teenagers — or was one — knows that this study only missed the mark by about 60 percent of the population of teenage boys. These data are as unrealistic as the stats on marijuana use, which has been underreported by teens for years.

Double Take columnists Gabe Magee and Dr. Wes Crenshaw

Here’s what I can tell you from clinical experience: The impact of EOC is immense; it isn’t limited to teenage boys; it isn’t just “somebody else’s kids;” and the effects go far beyond those teens who directly consume it, affecting the essential fabric of teen culture.

Simply put, what we have not been able to do as a society — rationally educate our children about both the positives and negatives of sexuality, sexual decision-making, and sexual variation — our computers are now doing for us. If as a parent you’re comfortable with that state of affairs, then sit back, relax and leave the driving to the Internet. Or you could get super tech-savvy and filter your children’s access to explicit material, ignoring the fact that only a healthy, ongoing, no-holds-barred conversation about sex can compete with the powerful flow of information pouring around, over, and under those filters and into your child’s life.

Here’s the good news: Even if parents are still reluctant, teens are increasingly ready to talk about all things sexual. While no conversation about pornography is going to be easy, the one you don’t have may well be the hardest because it leaves your child alone on the information superhighway at a critical juncture in his or her growth and development. You wouldn’t do that on a literal highway, so don’t do it on this increasingly important metaphorical one.

Gabe: Pornography is a natural part of human society. Ever since we could paint on cave walls, we have depicted acts of sex. It would be foolish to think we could stifle a nature as inherent as porn. I agree that the amount of external sexual information that your child receives is uncontrollable, unless you trap them inside a bubble suit. But this doesn’t mean that porn is something we should freely accept every young adolescent accessing at will. Dr. Wes touches on porn’s negative effects, but they definitely have a real effect on a child’s perception of sex.

Crime shows are to real-life police investigations as porn is to sex: a caricature. People watch both forms of media for pleasure and mistakenly think of them as documentaries, not fiction. If you’ve never experienced the acts portrayed, you have no way of knowing how realistic they actually are.

The long-running TV show “CSI” has actually affected the way juries expect evidence to be presented, and frustration often follows after those juries learn that TV magic is just a storyline. In a similar way, a boy beginning to have sex after having porn as his only sexual educator may be expecting an unhealthy depiction of sexuality to become real before him.

You can have a meaningful dialogue with your kids about sex. It is the greatest tool of influence any parent has to counter the overload of sexual information online. Parents can also push for more and more extensive sex education in schools. Sex is something we all have to deal with as humans. Our society is bettered if we all understand it on a more complete level.

— Wes Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP, is author of “I Always Want to Be Where I’m Not: Successful Living with ADD & ADHD.” Learn about his writing and practice at dr-wes.com. Gabe Magee is a Bishop Seabury Academy senior. Send your confidential 200-word question to ask@dr-wes.com. Double Take opinions and advice are not a substitute for psychological services.