Virginia is enlisting billboards, napkins, stickers, coasters and matchbooks to get out this message: “Isn’t she a little young? Sex with a minor. Don’t go there.”
I guess the perverts in Virginia need matchbooks to remind them…
Excerpts from the article:
NEW VIRGINIA HEALTH CAMPAIGN ASKS MEN A DIFFICULT QUESTION
By Justin Bergman
RICHMOND, Va. – The giant black and white billboard chides young men as they motor along Interstate 95 through Virginia’s capital.
“Isn’t she a little young?” the sign slyly asks. It continues: “Sex with a minor. Don’t go there.”
The billboard is one of many unveiled across Virginia this summer as part of a state health department campaign aimed at reducing statutory rape. Napkins, stickers, coasters and matchbooks bearing the same message have been scattered in bars and restaurants where young men congregate.
Program coordinator Robert Franklin said he’s received numerous calls from parents who are worried their teenage daughters might be involved with older men and need advice. One even wanted to purchase the napkins and coasters for her daughter’s birthday party.
It’s difficult to know how widespread the crime of statutory rape is across the country, particularly among girls who willingly engage in sex with older men. Franklin said Virginia hospital records from 2001 show that in 70 percent of births to girls age 14 and 15, the father of the baby was at least three years older than the mother. That’s a felony under Virginia law.
After a trial run of the program in Norfolk last year, officials conducted informal polling of men and found that 69 percent said they knew of someone having sex with a minor.
The health department campaign is targeting men between 18 to 29 who live in urban areas, Franklin said. Not only are officials disseminating the coasters, napkins and other paraphernalia at sports bars and trendy night spots that are popular with young men, but also they’re addressing men in a way they can relate to.
For instance, the campaign’s Web site urges guys to speak up if “your buddy is involved with a girl and you know it’s not right” and “it gets kind of weird when he brings her to parties.”
Salon has a good article on this .
Coupla thoughts:
The billboard looks like the cover of a Chick tract. That ain’t good.
“Odor” is an unfortunate surname.
The age of consent in Virginia is eighteen? Mercy.
I wish states like this who like to waste money would just mail it to me.http://www.ageofconsent.com/canada.htm ). It’s far easier to tell a 14 year old girl a part from an 18 year old one.
So I guess they should expand on this campaign.
“Why risk jail in Richmond when it’s quail season in Toronto?”
lieu
August 17, 2004, 6:53pm
5
Guess their Virginia is for lovers campaign was a little too successful.
Once again the sexism that this topic inspires shines through. Are the ladies being warned against sleeping with under age boys? Is Michael Jackson?*
I’m sorry, it was there.
Actually, we got a few of these billboards down here earlier this year. Saw my first one when it was still snowing (so that made it, what, January?). The state then explained it as they had to spend the money - it was federal grant of some type.
And badmana , it’s not so easy to tell the 14 year olds from the 18 year olds down here. Must be something in the water.
You know, this came at the perfect time. I just got winked at by an 18 year old in response to my Love.com ad. Now I know - bad, bad, and wrong!
I kid - I knew before the ads. 18 - not!
Susan