Parents and teachers have been left divided after it was announced schools will be banned from teaching children about sex education until they’re nine. The government is set to officially announce the new sex education rules on Thursday .
‘Teaching children sex ed protects them from abuse’ A psychologist explained this kind of policy can be ‘dangerous to the safety of children’, as it can mean that children are less aware about sex. This can be detrimental when it comes to cases of abuse, she says. She added that teaching children about sex is also important to help ‘children understand and cope better with the changes of puberty’ as well as helping them make safer and healthier decisions around sex in the future.
So when it isn’t taught effectively in school, leaves young people looking elsewhere for answers. Over half of young people Fumble spoke to as part of their recent Youth Manifesto use online pornography to find out answers to their basic sex ed questions. ‘We need to protect our children and the way of doing that is by talking to them responsibly and in an age-appropriate way, in a context-appropriate way in school,’ he said.Speaking on BBC Radio 2, Angela Epstein, journalist and mum said she was relieved and ‘overwhelmed’ by the new rules.