Sexuality and Romantic Relationships in the Digital Age

There’s a long-standing relationship between sex and the Internet. As far as back the 1980s, Usenet and local bulletin board systems were used to share pornographic text files and crude (in both senses) graphics, and people have been using digital media to form and carry out online relationships at least as long. However, just as estimates of how much online traffic and content is made up of sexual material tend to be exaggerated[1], our new report – Sexuality and Romantic Relationships in the Digital Age – from MediaSmarts’ Young Canadians in a Wired World survey of 5,436 students, shows that for Canadian youth, sexuality and romantic relationships play a fairly small part of their online lives.

Sexting and youth: Confronting a modern dilemma

It’s hard to think of a recent digital technology issue that’s captured the public imagination more than sexting. This may be because it combines elements of the classic moral panic with more modern “technopanic,” provoking worries not just about the morality of our children – and, in particular, young girls – but also about the possible effects of technology on how we grow, think and behave. As with most panics, of course, the issue is substantially more complicated and less sensational than we perceive it to be, and while it’s unlikely that our worries about sexting will ever seem in retrospect to be as absurd as our grandparents’ fears about crime comics, MediaSmarts’ new data shows that many of our beliefs and assumptions on the subject need closer examination.

Atlantic Provinces: English Language Arts K-6 Overview

Each Atlantic Province follows closely the Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation Framework for English Language Arts. In this Framework, media literacy is integrated throughout the English Language Arts curriculum under the general learning outcomes of Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing and Writing and Other Ways of Representing.

Yukon

Yukon follows the British Columbia (BC) English Language Arts curriculum for Grades K-12, which is based on the WCP framework. At the secondary level, Yukon is implementing the BC Integrated Resource Packages (IRPs). In this curriculum, media-related outcomes have been included within the three areas of Comprehend and Respond, Communicate Ideas and Information, and Self and Society. 

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Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories is a member of the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Education (WNCP), formed in 1995 for curriculum development by the four Western provinces and two territories. (Nunavut joined the WNCP in 2000.)

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Manitoba

This section comprises a curricular overview, as well as curriculum charts for Grades K-12 that feature media education outcomes in the Manitoba curriculum, with links to supporting MediaSmarts resources and lessons.

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Ontario

This section comprises a curricular overview (below), as well as information about professional development for media education, and about Ontario's provincial media education association, the Association for Media Literacy (AML), in the sidebar.

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Nova Scotia

This section comprises a curricular overview (below), as well as information about professional development for media education, and about Nova Scotia's provincial media education association, Media Literacy Nova Scotia (MLNS) in the left menu.

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Newfoundland and Labrador

This section comprises a curricular overview (below), as well as information about professional development for media education, and about Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial media education association, the Association for Media Literacy for Newfoundland and Labrador (AMLNL) in the left menu.

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New Brunswick

This section comprises a curricular overview (below), as well as information about professional development for media education, and about New Brunswick's provincial media education association, the Association for a Media Literate New Brunswick (A-4-ML-NB) (in the left menu).

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