Old Enough to Make a Lanyard, and to Do It Nude
I'm not against the concept of nudity per se, but what I see here is the potential for all sorts of problems.
Here at the Youth Leadership Camp run by the American Association for Nude Recreation, the dress code for regular volleyball — and for the pudding toss, mini-golf and campfire sing-alongs — is the same as it is for skinny dipping.
Basking in what nudist organizations say is a growing interest in nude recreation, the association has begun a nationwide expansion of summer camps for nudists age 11 to 18. The first began here 10 years ago, in a county north of Tampa known for its concentration of nudist resorts. In 2000, the association opened its second camp in Arizona.
A third is to open outside Richmond, Va., this month, and organizers in Texas are planning a fourth camp there for the summer of 2005.
Naked summer camp might strike non-nudists as illegal or prurient, or like striking a match to the gasoline of adolescent hormones.
Of course, nudity is prurient only if viewed in that light, but my concern is a bit more prosaic. A local radio personality made a point that I believe bears some scrutiny. To be at a nudist camp and see a naked 11-year-old girl would be considered acceptable if you're following the philosophy of the people who run the camps. However, take a picture of that same girl and you have child pornography. It would seem the height of prudence, then, to exercise a maximum of caution when putting teenagers in this sort of environment. When does this become child porn? When does it not? Who is going to risk the legal repercussions?
(And then there is the rule against not dressing provocatively. Yep, y'all can cavort buck nekkid, but if y'all wear clothes, just make sure it's nothing suggestive...??)
And everyone is on guard against COG's — "creepy outside guys" — who try to sneak in past the tall fences and security gates, to peek. On Tuesday, when a suspicious-looking man arrived at the pool, counselors quickly herded campers away and guards escorted the unwelcome visitor from the premises.
"It makes me a bit freaked out that people would think of nudity as a sexual thing," said Michelle Jones, 15, a camper from Texas....
Parents seem to have no worries about pedophilia, speaking of nudist camps and resorts as safe, family-like environments.
"Everybody keeps an eye on the children," George Jeffries, Jane's father, said. "There are no transgressions by regular folks coming here, and newcomers are watched very closely."
Ah, the innocence of youth. In a way, it's sad that these children have a much healthier attitude that many adults. Still, if one of these camps open here in Texas, I'll lay you even money that some backwoods DA looking to score with the local God-fearing churchgoers will have someone in court on child pornography charges before you can say "strip volleyball". Of course, given the battalions of mosquitoes in our little corner of Paradise during this time of year, there may not be much nudity to worry about after all....
