Idjits

For a growing number of American kids, porn is their sex ed.  Now Pornhub is hoping to offer their audience some more formal lessons in how to be a healthy and happy sexual being.

On Wednesday, the massive adult entertainment destination took the somewhat surprising step of launching the “Pornhub Sexual Health Center.”  They’re hoping the free sub-site will become a go-to resource for some of their 70 million daily users on all manner of topics, including STIs, sexual safety and how to manage relationships.

They’ve chosen Dr. Laurie Betito, a renowned sex therapist, to direct the site and they’ll also be working with a number of doctors, therapists and other experts to offer advice and answer questions.  Corey Price, Pornhub’s Vice President, told Mashable, “Our goal is to provide our visitors with a site that has credible and insightful information, rather than have them scouring the internet.”

While it’s a database they’ll build up over time, a first look reveals they’ve started with the fundamentals — with answers to things like “Babies. Where do they come from?” and “Are there really three holes?”  These might seems almost laughably basic to adult consumers of hardcore porn, but there are a lot of young people for whom these are very real questions.

Price told Mashable they weren’t aiming the content specifically at beginners.  He said they simply want to appeal to “those who are looking for trustworthy sex tips and health advice provided by experts.”  But it seems like they realize this could prove to be an especially valuable resource for their younger audience, who most likely isn’t getting comprehensive (much less sex-positive) sex ed in schools.

There are, of course, plenty of online sexual health and education resources, but for many kids, landing on sites like Pornhub is already their way into learning about sex.  Porn can obviously teach you plenty about the basics and mechanics of intercourse, but there’s a whole range of other things — biology, health, consent, relating to intimate partners, just to name a few — that you won’t pick up from watching videos like “Big tits round asses” or “Sloppy throat games.”

So if they can slide their curious audience over to the PSHC while they’re already on the site, it could function as pretty useful one-stop shop for filling in the blanks left by spotty sex ed classes and the birds and bees talks given by often bewildered parents.