The Joy of Teen Sex

The People involved in the production of the TV show The joys of teenage sex should be charged with enticing children to have sex and they are giving The Paedophiles an open go of child abuse.It just shows the sick minds of the people involved with this show. May be it's a way that they get their kicks talking to Children about sex . Bring this show to Australia and I will fight you in our courts. I can assure you you will spend a long time in our Jails which would give you a long time to think about promoting Paedophiles and child abuse you sick people. I ask all people that have either read about this sick show or seen it to send your thoughts to the sick people that produce this trash Our children don't need this sort of rubbish to grow up with.

The producers of this show should be ashamed of themselves to make this sort of show they have scraped the bottom of the barrel making it. It just proves that they are poor producers if this is the best they can do

Please bear in mind that my review is based on watching episode one of season one.

I randomly came across this show while searching for documentaries over sexual health and reproductive rights in the US. I'm so happy that I found this! As a former sex ed teacher and a current reproductive justice activist in the US I am absolutely blown away by this show. So many of us in America are constantly fighting just to have medically accurate sexual education taught to our youth (rather than that crap abstinence only) that the idea of teaching a pro-sex curriculum doesn't even enter the minds of most of people. Leave it to the Europeans to get it (almost) right.

American are so horribly uptight, misogynistic, and heterofocused about sex that it's no wonder we, sadly, have the highest rates of sexual abuse, STI/STD contraction, unplanned pregnancy, abortion, and teen pregnancy rates of all Western nations. I love that this show not only discusses the practical side of sexual health, but also allows for teenagers to have fun with their sexuality. Shaming people, especially teens, only leads to the horrific condition the U.S. is suffering from.

The show actually allows teenagers to be active participants in the making as well. I felt as if the people involved weren't talking at teens, but rather with them. My only complaint thus far is that this show only talks about orientation and gender in a dichotomous way. They completely ignored the existence of bisexual and trans identified people as well as those that fall into other identities. Until they properly address ALL teenagers sexual needs and health then they're ultimately doomed to let far too many kids in Britain fall between the cracks. I'm off to watch more episodes.

And the Australian guy who cried child abuse in his review is just sad. Shows like this paint sexuality in a healthy light which would lead to LESS child abuse as well as other forms of gendered violence. I'm happy (and sad) to know though that it's not just my country plagued with misinformed, ignorant, conservative, just plain nutty people.

Two points: 1) Yes, Channel 4 really has made a show called 'The Joy of Teen Sex'. But following 'The Sex Education Show', does anything really shock you? 2) Whatever else, make sure to record this show beforehand and watch it on x6 with subtitles; x2 minimum.

My third point would be: don't watch it at all. No-one seems to have taken heed. Immediately upon seeing the title, I texted my teenage friend. "Yes, I've already seen it," she replied. "And the new 'Embarrassing Bodies'." There's a new 'Embarrassing Bodies'? They're still making that? Really? How many more people can there be whose bodily embarrassment is so excruciating that they are prepared to parade their poontang on national television? But someone explained the ruse to me: 'Embarrassing Bodies' offers all of its patients free treatment. Free consultations and boob jobs and tummy tucks.

The problem with 'The Joy of Teen Sex' is that no-one here needs any real treatment. Sure, sure, someone needs advice on contraception. Someone thinks they may be allergic to semen. Some girl is worried she's boring in bed. Some feckless sod is paranoid about the size of his penis. The nearest we get to a crisis is a happy-go-lucky reveller getting an AIDS test, and because this is 'The Joy of Teen Sex' and not 'Rebus' it obviously comes back negative. This show has less drama than the third act of a Shakespearean comedy.

And my underlying suspicion is that 90% of the kids involved are in it for the laugh. I watched the first four episodes back-to-back on my DVR; the longer it went on the more farcical it became. A mother and daughter turned up for a lesson in sexual positions. A spotty kid wanted clarification on whether or not he was still a virgin (he was). Some chick's boyfriend claimed to have a phobia of vaginas. His prescription - if it can be so described - was to make a plaster cast of his girlfriend's vulva ('vagina' was used incorrectly throughout this segment) and then take it home with him as if he'd won a Blue Peter Badge.

At regular junctures in each episode, 'The Joy of Teen Sex' inserts a sprinkling of vox pops. Cutaways to vox pops are always a sound indicator that a programme has run out of ideas, and this is no exception, treating us to a salvo of otherwise sensible people saying luridly sexual things that you have probably never heard on mainstream TV before, nor ever cared to hear.

The leading light within this carnival of crassness, our doyenne of debauchery, is Billie, the show's teenage journalist. Billie's journalistic credentials comprise a scowling demeanour and Generic Uni Accent. Billie is a hot mess: think four parts Peaches Geldof mixed with one part Ke$ha. And include the dollar sign when you do that. At most I would guess her as 19, 18 - learned and wise by 'Teen Sex' standards. Billie invests her every glance and movement with a sort of world-weary disdain. She's angry about something, but no-one ever thinks to interview the interviewer. Sometimes we glean passing insights into her backstory, and on one extraordinary occasion she strips down to her bra for a 'glamour' photographer (read: leering old codger). "You didn't look like you were enjoying it," he says afterwards. And she wasn't.

But she gets some crappy gigs, does Billie. Investigating online porn, investigating teenage swingers. Investigating herbal sex drugs: "Everyone was having a good time, except me," she muses in the taxi back to the studio, unwittingly writing her epitaph. She is a profound study in melancholy and isolation, and deserves more screen time.

The rest of Teen Sex's crew are a mixed bag. One is a bona-fide doctor of the 'Embarrassing Bodies' school, the other two are Gillian McKeith-esque charlatans who look an episode away from unemployment.

In the end, two things occur to me about this show. The first is that, in spite of Channel 4's commitment to topical, progressive and unabashedly explicit sex-ed programming, this particular format is very old-hat. The Internet and its endless stream of nudity and amateur cunnilingus and Wikipedia ejaculation videos and puberty forums moderated by 13 year-olds, every sordid bit of it has long-since rendered the concept of a TV sex-education show obsolete. Sex and information about sex are more widely available than ever and teenagers know it. 'The Joy of Teen Sex' imagines that, irrespective of its comparative tameness, the very fact of it being on TV lends it credibility above and beyond the web. And that exemplifies old-media arrogance.

Secondly, even the advice on offer here isn't particularly instructive. The consultations are quickly dispensed with, the people with genuine body-image concerns shuffled off screen with tacky video montages and assurances from the narrator that everyone will live happily ever after. The guides to oral and anal sex and virginity are facile and irrelevant. It's all a knowing sham, coyly playing doctor with a smirking, pseudo-academic giggle.

By the way - if you were hoping for more college-girl nudity, look elsewhere. 'Teen Sex' is a major blip in form for Channel 4. There is no University of Birmingham hockey team. No locker-room strip. No Izzy Fullwood. Crikey.