Barry Soper: The protest worth talking about

Wellington College has been the centre of controversy after students posted comments online talking about taking advantage of women. Photo / Anthony Phelps

It would have to be one of the most thankless jobs in education, being the headmaster of a boys school.

Wellington College has a fine tradition, both on the sports field and academically, and that's due in large part to the school's leadership team led by Roger Moses.

Having sent two stroppy boys to the school it was hard not to be impressed by the ability of Moses to pull them into line when necessary, in a firm but reasonable manner.

In the privacy of his office he was of the view that the boys should be able to vent, to get whatever was bugging them off their chests without consequence.

The consequence came after due deliberation and after the venting session and was always well considered and fair.

Over the past week the school's been in the spotlight, and not for the first time, after two boys posted on a private Facebook site about how drunken, unconscious girls should be taken advantage of. If you don't take advantage of a drunk girl, one wrote, then you're not a true Wellington College boy.

Given my relatively recent experience of the school it's not a view held by the vast majority of kids who go there.

Still young women from other schools were right to protest at Parliament about what they see as the rape culture, it was impressive. But it does open an unattractive can of worms about what's poisoning the minds of our youth even if Bill English says there's always an element of people in their early teens doing things that show bad judgement.

The Prime Minister touched on another matter that gets to the crux of what's tainting the minds of our young, even if he doesn't acknowledge it as being a significant problem.

The ultra conservative English said pornography, which he even had trouble pronouncing, isn't a problem that's easy to speak about and he doesn't see that it's a fast growing or overwhelming issue confronting our young people.

Most of them though have cellphones and pornography sites can be accessed at the swipe of a keyboard.

So Bill English is wrong, we should be talking about it and it is a fast growing and overwhelming problem that has to be influencing the way our teens are approaching sex.