CQ 20 – Teen porn and pregnancy are on the rise yet basic factual sex education is severely restricted they claim due to mature content? What is the solution?
Knowledge is Power. Kids are learning all about sex by the time they reach the age of eleven (some earlier) and generally from bad sources – gossip and taunting at school and these days, the internet. I think we had a brief session of sex ed my sophomore year in high school. It was not nearly enough. I’d been taunted and teased sexually by male classmates from age eleven and molested by my sister’s boyfriend at age twelve. I wish I’d had some sex education before any of that began, along with some information on how to handle sexual advances.
Sex education should be taught as early as possible, but no later than middle school as it is referred to in the US (6 and 7th grades), and it should continue to be taught until kids graduate from high school. But I think it has to go further than just teaching kids about the body’s anatomy and how sex works. There need to be programs on how to handle sexual advances, the proper ways to respect one’s own body and the bodies of others, and boys need to be taught that girls are not objects for their sexual desires and intentions. Parents need to be involved as well. They need to be taught to see signs in their children that sexual advances or molestations have occurred. They need to be taught how to monitor their kids’ time online and what sites their kids should avoid. Whether we adults like it or not, sexual issues begin earlier and earlier these days, and we have to stop being prudish about it.
As the Fates Would Have It 