Dear Chennai Times, did you really have to publish an article on ‘sex toys’ in my home?

I was appalled to read the article titled, “Sex toys you didn’t know you have in your house”, published in Chennai Times (The Times of India) on December 24, 2015. I find the article to be completely inappropriate to the readership, which includes teenage and underage children who browse through the paper for cartoons, puzzles, restaurant reviews and movie schedules.

I do agree that the Internet and the media have all of this information and more that is accessible to anyone of any age. However, I find that this kind of reiteration is absolutely unnecessary and in poor taste.

If I am an educated, responsible adult and if I am planning on being “adventurous” in bed, I don’t need an article in the Times of India to educate me. Yes, sex is a pleasurable activity and many adults (and young adults, and god forbid teens) indulge in this, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. After all, we are the land where Kamasutra was written. However, in a country where sex education is non-existent, where children still get abused at home and in so-called safe spaces, including in schools and shopping malls, by people they know and even love sometimes, I feel we don’t need these kinds of articles to endorse the activity or the pleasure that one gets out of it.

Would you or for that matter any average Indian mom or dad have this conversation with their child over breakfast? I would like to hold a mirror to the writer of the piece and ask her if she would be comfortable with telling her child, sibling, nephew or niece about the pros of using an “electric toothbrush”? What would the writer do if this article provokes someone to try it with her child, sibling, nephew or niece?

You as a newspaper that millions read to get legitimate and correct (so we think) information have a moral obligation towards each and every Indian to provide clean and wholesome articles in your so-called lifestyle supplements…that is responsible journalism.