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Five-year-olds should have sex lessons, doctors told
Anna Davis, Evening Standard08.07.08
Sex education should be taught to all five-year-olds, doctors are being told.
Two sexual health charities argue that waiting until children reach secondary school could do more harm than good.
The Family Planning Association and Brook are calling on the Government to introduce sex and relationships education into primary schools to help deter children from rushing into sex. The debate has intensified since figures released last month showed the number of schoolgirls having abortions in England and Wales has hit record levels.
Dr Chris Spencer Jones, chairman of the BMA's public health committee, helped table the motion to be debated at the BMA conference in Edinburgh tomorrow.
He said: "If you talk to secondary school pupils about drugs, alcohol and sex you may not discourage them from doing anything.
"When you talk about sex with younger children they are at the decision making stage and can make decisions before they are under the influence of teenage hormones or peer pressure." He said that in Holland sex education begins at the age of five and has cut teenage pregnancy.
"The Dutch have cracked it. The solution lies in having the facts early on and developing an opinion," he said.
Reader views (2)
Unfortunately there'll always be adults who want to talk to children about sex but that's no reason for the state to encourage and sanction them.
- Daisy O'Hara, London, UK
This is obviously not true though: if you talk to Primary school children about smoking they're utterly damning of it as a habit, the second teenage rebellion comes along 'childish principles' go out of the window. The problem in the UK with sex ed is that 'sex' is still dirty, naughty and taboo in our wider culture, until we, as a nation, are more relaxed about it as a generalised concept, the problem of teenage sex will continue.
- Neil, Notting Hill
