Design my Impact

 So far, this week's materials has inspired the most feelings of anger and powerlessness on the topic of social innovation.  Maybe it's because I chose a "problem" that is so wicked, I struggle to put my goals into the prescribed 8 words (Starr, 2020). Maybe it's because I searched the internet for a company that was doing what I think should be done and there is ONE that isn't a church group.

One. 

That's not enough. 

What that says to me is two things:

1. Pro-sexual education is the job of the parents/family.

2. They are left alone to do it.  

While 94% of parents say they feel confident in talking to their kids about sex, 64% of those say that their parents really messed up talking to them about it.  And only 46% say that they have or have a plan of when to talk to their children.

That is leaving a whole lot up to chance.  

I'm powerlessly frustrated by the evidence that parents are waiting to discuss something that the internet is ready to shove aggressively down their children's throats. 

Studies show that kids are being exposed to pornography oftentimes as early as age 5, and definitely by age 11. Most parents don't begin talking to their kids until age 12. It's already too late to make the first impression a positive, healthy one. 

But studies are not getting to the parents. 

I mean, I think that parents themselves have a problem.  So many couples are divorcing, indicating that there isn't a huge population of people with healthy sexual views, practices, and relationships to begin with, yet these are the parents that must combat the filth of the internet/pornography machine in order to give their children freedom from sexual exploitation. 

Even if I had a great solution, sex is everywhere, but taboo. And it is tied up with religion, culture, gender roles, even politics. It's behind so many types of fences that a human can't seem to get through where the internet is invited straight in. 

So if I see this problem and want to design some sort of impactful "solution," how do I measure it? 

How can I Design my Impact?

I feel sick thinking about how powerless one person is in the face of a $94 million a year industry. 

How are eight words supposed to help me with that? 

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