Author

Why another teenage puberty site?
Image by Nicki Varkevisser CC BY 2.0 Cropped

Boys Under Attack

What was the motivation?

Start by acknowledging that boys are languishing while girls are succeeding.

Statistics collected over two decades show an alarming decline in the performance of America's boys--in some respects, a virtual free fall. Boys were doing poorly in school, abusing drugs, committing violent crimes and engaging in promiscuous sex. Young males lost ground by many behavioral indicators at some point in the 1980s and '90s: sharp plunges on some scales, long erosions on others.

The Myth About Boys - von Drehle [1]

13.9% children and adolescents aged 4-17 years experienced a mental disorder between 2013-14.

My name is Tyler Curtis-White - a 49 year old man living in Australia who works as an engineer by day and has been a youth leader/mentor in my spare time for many years. The only reason I got involved with youth work was to fill a void in my local christian church and a local sports group.

It became apparent during my days of interacting with youth that boys are struggling in many areas of life - including adapting to their emerging sexuality (surprising considering these enlightened times).

With some parents' permission, I arranged for their behaviour troubled boys to watch a straight talk video on the big puberty issues they face - including straight talk on masturbation. The amazing improvement in behaviour of some of the boys was unmistakable and I knew then that this lack of knowledge was a valid issue that many boys silently endure.

I went looking for a balanced broad brush website that I would feel comfortable recommending to boys to address at least this one important area they seemed to struggle with however I could not find even one site I was happy with. So I started compiling the information myself - information that seemed to work over the years - having now the added benefit of experience and hindsight.

boysunderattack.com came into existence in 1998 and has continued to grow ever since. Boys Under Attack was chosen as the name because that was what I observed about boys in general - they were under some intangible societal or internal force holding them back and often causing them to miss their true potential as contributing members of society.

This site is Christian based and draws its information from selected, balanced sources held in high regard across many denominations as well as the author's own experiences working with adolescent boys. The fact that the site has a christian basis means there is a wide cross section of consensus and the writings are more than one individual's ramblings!

Mission statement

I was teaching a young boy to ride a motor cycle, something he had been eagerly looking forward to. Because the experience was new to him he was overreacting by swinging the handle bars wildly while he was going along, over accelerating when it wasn't safe and applying the brakes too hard and losing control. It all scared him! He never dreamed it would be like that in real life. Each time the bike started getting out of control, I would reach forward and steady the handlebars or ease the accelerator back a bit.

This monumental event he was looking forward to so much could easily have been his undoing if I wasn't there to steady him, to reassure him and tell him how things should be handled. That is the purpose of this site - to reach out and steady the handle bars and ease up the accelerator a bit in teenage boys' lives who are feeling a little out of control with their emerging sexuality.

More specifically - to provide a source of factual and relatable (not-so-clinical) information for teenage and preteen boys about their sexual development and other important life issues.

Our boys are in deep peril. Powerful and sinister forces operate in our world right now. They are bold and stealthy, intent on wrestling greatness from the grasp of our boys. These forces are not always obvious. Collectively, we can learn to spot them and beat them at their game. We can create a generation of boys representing our greatest achievement. As they say, we can hang together, or we can hang alone.

The Myth About Boys - von Drehle [1]

References

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  1. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1647452,00.html