Vocal Voices

This appeared on the BBC website front page, then as quickly disappeared.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22308393

A group of sex education "experts" want porn to be shown in schools and for porn to be discussed in sex education lessons.

I can almost see where they are coming from with regards to years 10 and 11, age 14 and over, but can't they leave the little ones alone to live their lives in innocence for a while longer?

The state thinks it has absolute right over other people's children.

I think it is a very good idea (not to show pornography in schools but to discuss it).

In todays society pornography is readily available and children should be taught that it is not the norm, that some people are coerced into it and that drugs, trafficking and organised crime surround it. They should also be taught about sexting and the dangers of being sexually explicit on social networking sites.

I think 11 is the perfect age to start drip feeding information to them.

Many of you know that I have been writing about this disgraceful intrusion without parental consent. It is up to every parent to boycott the schools who are sexualising little ones as young as six showing them pornographic films etc. What happened? an 11 year old raped an eight year old a some boys terrorised another little girl in a field sexually abusing her. This country is being run by a bunch of bloody pervs.!

But they aren't talking about showing them images of sexual abuse Kate. And I doubt very much that they would be shown anything pornographic. And the article mentions children from the age of 11, not the age of 6.

Teenagers need to know that women (and men) are not sex objects and that pornography is degrading and not at all glamorous.

I don't think for one minute that teaching teenagers to respect their bodies and those of others is in anyway perverted - it is educational. Girls need to know that filming themselves in a sexual way on their mobile phones and then sending the pictures to others (and they do!) is not glamorous. But if adults ignore the behaviour we are as good as condoning it.

I also don't think it is any bad thing teaching younger children, particularly girls, that the pictures they see of their celeb. idols in magazines really do not look like that and explain what air brushing is all about.

I don't know of one school that has shown primary school children pornographic films when it comes to sex education. Children in years 5 and 6 are taught sex education as part of the curriculum - it is quite basic. It teaches them about the changes their bodies are going to go through, how their hormones will affect how they think and feel. It only touches on the sexual act.

Children as young as 5 are catered for in the sex education policies - but all they are taught is how to tell the difference between our bodies. So for example they will learn how to recognise a man and a woman but not in any sort of sexualised way but in much more of a stereotypical way - men have beards, women have long hair, etc.

It seems that it is okay for newsagents to have pornographic magazines on their shelves, for newspapers to have topless women on their pages, for adverts to have sexual undertones and for celebrity magazines to airbrush photographs but not okay for our children to be told what is good and bad about all these things.

As a nation we are embarrassed to talk about sex to our children, just as we don't seem to discuss death. They are both taboo subjects. Maybe if we talked to our children more about sex and relationships we would have less teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

It isn't up to the schools to teach children these things, it is up to the parents. But as so many parents are embarrassed to discuss these issues then how else are children supposed to learn fact from fiction if the teachers don't tell them.

debih wrote:I think it is a very good idea (not to show pornography in schools but to discuss it).

In todays society pornography is readily available and children should be taught that it is not the norm, that some people are coerced into it and that drugs, trafficking and organised crime surround it. They should also be taught about sexting and the dangers of being sexually explicit on social networking sites.

I think 11 is the perfect age to start drip feeding information to them.

My initial reaction was against, but that was probably down to the provocative headline. I agree with Kate regarding the the way sex education (porn) being too graphic is treated for those who are very young, but Debih is right that it does need to be discussed, and in more detail than many of us, as parents, would would be comfortable with,

The world, and the way it works, is so different from the days of my childhood that a new approach is needed. The social mores of the 1930s or 1950s/1960s are no longer appropriate. We live in 2013 and have to deal with its norms. We might not like it, but we have to deal with it.

Debih is right - life these days is highly sexualised compared to our childhoods and as parents we have to grasp the nettle. Porn is very easily accessible and I think that children need to be taught that whilst sex is not wrong, women and young girls need to respect their bodies and themselves, and young lads need to be taught that girls and women are not the over inflated, shiny, hairless, totally 'up for it' pliant creatures that appear in porn

Not talking about my own daughter here, she is far more sensible than this, but some of the threads you see between young people on social media make your hair stand up on end - lads often seem to have no respect for girls, talk to them in a highly sexual and often obscene way, ad the girls do likewise to their friends - calling one another 'bitch' as a for of endearment and the like. Appearance and sexual attraction seem to be more important than almost anything else.......

Many parents have no idea how to even start to restrict what their children see on the net - many don't even have basic software or net nannies on their PCs, but even if you do there are smart phone and tablets and ipads......it's impossible to shield children from this completely and they have access to the cyber equivalent of being let loose in a shop full of porn mags and DVDs - we can't stop it so they have to be taught respect for themselves and others, and how to be safe!!

What shocks me is the way they sleep together and have sex. They see if as nothing more than a step on from hugging. They all hug and kiss each other now, my nieces school has actually banned it. But my nephew goes out with a mixed crowd, a few will all come back to his house, they share and bed and have sex, according to him, it's just fun, apparently friends with benefits

Sad really.....................I was no angel at that age but at least I loved and cared for my boyfriends. Sex was never just meaningless or for fun - it was an expression of loving feelings

My nephew is 24 Kaz, but this has been happening for a good few years, since he split with his long term girlfriend three years ago I suppose