Teenagers who have had formal sex education are far more likely to put off having sex, contradicting earlier studies on the effectiveness of such programs, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

They found teenage boys who had sex education in school were 71 percent less likely to have intercourse before age 15, and teen girls who had sex education were 59 percent less likely to have sex before age 15.

Sex education also increased the likelihood that teen boys would use contraceptives the first time they had sex, according to the study by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"Sex education seems to be working," Trisha Mueller, an epidemiologist with the CDC who led the study, said in a statement. "It seems to be especially effective for populations that are usually at high risk."

Mueller’s team looked at a 2002 national survey of 2,019 teens aged 15 to 19.

They found teen boys who had sex education in school were nearly three times more likely to use birth control the first time they had intercourse. But sex education appeared to have no effect on whether teen girls used birth control, the researchers found.

Black teenage girls who had sex education in school were 91 percent less likely to have sex before age 15.

The researchers did not evaluate the content of sex education programs, including whether students were taught about contraception or about abstinence only.

Earlier studies, which relied on data from the 1970s through the 1990s, suggested sex education did little to persuade teens to delay sex.

The researchers said they think the difference may be that sex education in the United States is now more widespread and is being taught at earlier ages.

"Unlike many previous studies, our results suggest that sex education before first sex protects youth from engaging in sexual intercourse at an early age," they wrote.

Sex Education Works, Study Shows
Teens Who Have Formal Sex Education Delay Sexual Activity, Researchers Find

Sex education is effective, increasing the chances that teens will delay having sexual intercourse at least until they reach age 15, according to a new study.

"We were encouraged that sex education is working," says Trisha Mueller, MPH, an epidemiologist at the CDC in Atlanta who led the study. "Sex education should continue to be implemented."

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SEX education lessons should be given to schoolchildren as young as five as part of a bid to combat soaring levels of teenage pregnancy and sexual disease, Scotland’s most senior public health doctor said last night.

Dr Charles Saunders, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Scottish consultants’ committee, warned that schools were leaving the safe-sex message so late that many teenagers were already exposing themselves to avoidable risk.

Saunders also called for secondary schools to hand out condoms and other forms of contraception to children from the age of 13.

His comments are the most radical call for reform of sex education in Scotland ever to be made by such a senior doctors’ leader.

Last night, parents’ groups gave Saunders’ remarks their cautious backing and the Scottish Government said it was up to individual schools to decide when to begin sex education. But the Catholic Church in Scotland said it would oppose any such move, describing it as “pointless”.

Scotland’s sexual health record is one of the poorest in the western world. Teenage pregnancies are on the rise with 9,040 in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, compared with 8,891 in 2004. Cases of sexually transmitted diseases are also rising. In April to June this year, Scottish laboratories saw 4,715 cases of chlamydia - up 6% from 4,468 in January to March.

Saunders, a consultant in public health medicine at NHS Fife, said: “It needs to start at quite an early age, because if you leave it until they are 12 it is too late because some are already experimenting. It probably needs to be started off when children start school. You need to start laying the groundwork to help them and empower them to make decisions and turn things down.

“At five it needs to be a language that they understand and taught in the same way as any other subject. It would be basic mechanics at that age in the same way as you teach a child of that age a tiny amount about geography, a fairly superficial introduction.

“It should start off with relatively simple concepts in the same way as English and science start off with the basics. It could start off with how babies are made and progress from there.”

He added: “You need to start somewhere and it makes an awful lot of sense to start long before it’s needed, because if you leave it too long you are wasting your time.

“Basically sex education needs to be a whole lot better. It’s not just anatomical drawings but what the risks are from infections and what the pros and cons are of having sex or waiting.

“It’s not a simple task to get young people empowered enough to use condoms, but it’s the key. You want to ensure people are not having sex when they don’t want to have it, and that when they do want to have it they are not putting themselves at risk.”

Saunders added that all schools should also provide contraception to pupils. Currently contraception is on offer at a small number of schools.

He said: “Particularly in rural areas, schools may well be the only way that pupils can access contraception.

“It may well be that as time goes on it would make sense to have emergency contraception in schools.”

The Scottish Government allows local authorities and head teachers to set their own sex education policies, provided they are deemed appropriate to the age of the child and parents are happy with the subject matter.

In the majority of cases children do not learn about sex until Primary Six or Seven, when they are 10 or 11. They are not taught about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases until secondary school.

A school could introduce sex education in Primary One, provided parents and teachers agreed it was the right move.

Judith Gillespie, development manager of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said she was undecided about whether

five was the appropriate age to begin sex education, but she recognised Saunders’ concerns.

She said: “We do have to step up our sex education, but if they want to move forward with this they can’t just take it into schools, they have to have the support of parents.

“Sex education is an area where schools have to approach parents, and parents have the opportunity to veto it. We need to have a concerted information campaign so that parents understand it.”

A spokesman for the teaching union the Educational Institute of Scotland

said: “While it is sensible to examine ways of improving the quality of information available to pupils, we must always take full account of the concerns of both the parents of the children concerned, and the teachers who are expected to deliver sex and relationship education.”

However, a spokesman for the Catholic Church said five-year-olds were too young to understand sex.

He said: “When children reach puberty they are able to assimilate information about their own sexuality but they are just not ready at five. It’s way over their heads and would be as pointless as giving a five-year-old a talk on alcohol. At the age of 15 it’s a different matter.”

Public Health Minister Shona Robison

said: “We expect all schools to teach sex and relationships education and we expect them to consult parents about the content of sex and relationships education programmes.

“Any sex and relationships education needs to be appropriate to the age and stage of the pupils involved. Younger pupils might start learning about the broad idea of relationships, and family and friends, for example.

“We are not persuaded of the need to provide emergency contraception on school premises but do want to ensure that such services are available and are accessible in other local facilities.”

Children of five ’should be given sex lessons’

Sex education lessons should be given to children as young as five in an attempt to combat rising levels of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, a senior public health doctor has said.
Dr Charles Saunders warned that schools were leaving the “safe sex message” so late that many youngsters were being exposed to unnecessary risks.

He said that by the time they were 12, many children were “already experimenting”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching children that sex is separate from marriage has led to untold misery.

Polly Toynbee claims the small reduction we have seen in teenage conception rates “may be partly due to easier emergency contraception from local pharmacies”. However, international studies have consistently shown that increased access to the morning-after pill has reduced neither abortion nor unintended pregnancy rates.

Our own study, which Toynbee dismisses as “a spurious story” and “evidence-proven nonsense”, reveals that not a single primary care trust was able to cite any evidence that the confidential provision of the morning-after pill in pharmacies has contributed to a reduction in under-16 conception rates.

This may sound counterintuitive. After all, if the morning-after pill works at all, it stands to reason that it does prevent at least some unwanted pregnancies from developing, and thus prevents at least some abortions. However, there is also evidence that the ready availability of contraception results in some young people becoming sexually active who would not otherwise have done so.

For almost a year following Victoria Gillick’s appeal court victory in 1984, under-16s were unable to obtain contraception without parental consent. The sex-education establishment and contraceptive industry protested that teenage pregnancy rates would rocket. But they didn’t. While under-16 attendances at family-planning clinics went down by a third, teenage conception rates remained the same, suggesting that the restriction on contraceptive services to under-16s led to a fall in underage sexual activity.

But not everybody regards less teenage sexual activity as a positive outcome. Some are wedded to the notion of “children’s reproductive-health rights” - a euphemism for the “right” of children to engage in unlawful sexual intercourse, with confidential access to contraception and abortion. Toynbee herself is dismissive of any attempt to discourage teenage sex, and even goes so far as to say: “It is good news … that more pregnant teenagers are opting for abortions.”Bearing in mind the long-term trauma experienced by many women after an abortion, this is hardly a cause for celebration.

“Abstinence teaching doesn’t work,” Toynbee asserts, while sex education “taught well” can serve as the panacea for any number of social ills. But this all prompts the question as to what “work” and “taught well” mean.

The organisations demanding compulsory sex education in all schools share a strong hostility towards teaching children the positive benefits of saving sex for marriage. Separating sex from marriage has not only led to high rates of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and abortions, but is also a major contributory factor in divorce and family breakdown, with all the associated human misery and adverse social consequences. Young people need to hear that there is a better way.

Schools must remain accountable to parents who bear the primary responsibility for their children’s care and nurture; and parents must retain the freedom to withdraw their children from sex-education lessons they believe will do more harm than good.

Backlash over sex education failings

Teenagers are being taught sex education so badly in schools that many are left in complete ignorance about how to avoid sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy.

A letter to The Times today from leading children’s organisations, sexual health experts and eight members of the Commons Health Select Committee, calls on the Government to make relationship teaching a statutory part of the national curriculum.

The experts say that research published today highlights the longstanding failure of schools and how it is contributing to the country’s sexual health crisis.

Of more than 20,000 teenagers in England questioned about sex education, more than half rated the teaching in school as poor, very poor or merely average. Only a quarter said that it was good.

Nearly half of those surveyed by the UK Youth Parliament said that they had never been taught about the effects of teenage pregnancy and would not know where to find their local sexual health clinic. More than half (55 per cent) of all 12 to 15-year-olds, and 57 per cent of girls between the ages of 16 to 17 had not been taught how to use a condom, despite the Government’s recommendations, published seven years ago, that this should be taught in all schools. The majority of pupils over the age of 17 reported not having received any information about personal relationships at school.

The letter, signed by the chief executives of the NSPCC, the Brook pregnancy advisory service, the Family Planning Association and the Terrence Higgins Trust, states: “These figures may go some way to explaining disproportionately high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in this country.”

Figures from the Health Protection Agency reveal that among 16 to 19-year-olds, diagnoses of herpes rose by 13 per cent and those of genital warts increased by 6 per cent between 2005 and last year. Government figures also show that the UK still has the highest levels of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe. For every 1,000 births between 2000 and 2005, 27 were to under-19s. It was just eight in France.

The Youth Parliament is calling for sexand relationship courses to be made a statutory part of personal, social and health and economic education. At present sex education is a statutory part only of the science curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds.

There is popular concern about virginity definition and the meaning others put in it. Most people consider a person virgin if he never had sexual intercourse, i.e. penis- vagina penetration. You may say that “technically” a woman having hymen or a man who never penetrated a woman is considered to be a virgin. But a lot of questions appear, like ”What if I am gay and have sex with the same sex?” or “Do I have to consider myself a virgin if I had oral, anal, solo sex with sex toys?”. The answer will be as follows:” You are the one to decide whether to consider yourself a virgin or not. But every sexual act holds a lot of responsibility, where all the risks, hopes and emotions are involved. That’s why a primary question you should decide on is to weigh all pros and contras before you make this major step.

Are you ready?
You are young and hot. Everybody seems to have sex. Of course, no one doubts that you are no longer child and sex is a great pleasure. Still wait for a while and think over one important thing: Are you ready for your first time?

That is not an idle question for every person if he or she made up his mind to lose virginity. Even if you feel a wild urge to have first intercourse, the best thing to do in this situation is to answer to yourself whether you are ready to take a responsibility for your and your partner’s health, know all about the consequences of sexual interaction, like STD’s and pregnancy. Surely, safe sex should be of primary importance to you, as well as things like your psychological readiness for intimate relationships. Loosing virginity should be a free choice for you. You shouldn’t fall under pressure or do it with a person you know nothing about. Of course, you may not fill your head with all this “stuff”, but many people do actually. If you respect yourself and are going to be sexually active, you are going to know that no matter what your further intimate relationships will be, you won’t forget your first man or a woman even if you try to. That’s why you’d better take it seriously, so that further memories won’t disappoint you.

Losing your virginity is a big decision. Not only must you be certain that you are emotionally ready to be with someone in this way but you must also be certain that you understand the risks associated with having sex such as contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI) and/or getting pregnant. You should also take your partner into account when you are considering losing your virginity, and be sure that you are both absolutely certain that you are ready to have sex. Unfortunately there are no easy checklists for working out if you are ready to lose your virginity, but if you find it hard to talk about sex with your partner, you find yourself blushing or giggling during discussions of sexuality, and/or you are unwilling to admit that you will need to protect yourself during sex then you are likely not ready to lose your virginity. If, however, you and your partner have discussed sex, you are both ready to explore safer sex options, and you fully understand possible consequences of your options then you may decide that you are ready to lose your virginity.

Should You Lose It?

Clearly, the definition of virginity leaves lots of room for interpretation! But the real question is: should you lose it? Deciding whether or not to remain a virgin is a highly personal decision that can be influenced by a variety of factors, such as religion, family and personal values, peer influence, and the status of your relationship. It’s important to think about where you stand on the issue. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you decide:

• Do I believe that sex should only be shared in a marriage or other committed relationship?
• Do I think that two people should be in love before having sex?
• Do I believe that a person should be a certain age before having sex?

What will help me decide when I’m ready to have sex?
There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Sexual decisions are a matter of personal beliefs and values, but it’s important to think them through before you take the plunge. Talking about your views on virginity with your partner is also a good idea. And remember, sex doesn’t have to be a part of every relationship … even if you aren’t a virgin. You have the right to decide when to have sex — the first time, and always!

Safer Sex Considerations
If you do believe that you are ready to lose your virginity then remember that the only completely safe sex – 100% guaranteed not to lead to pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI) such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea or HIV – is abstaining from sex completely. If you understand this and are willing to accept that there are risks associated with having sex, then make sure that you understand that there are ways to make sex safer, particularly by using a condom. A condom creates a physical barrier between people during oral, anal and vaginal sex so it can help keep infections from being spread. Unfortunately, condoms can be put on incorrectly, slip off during sex, and break. Condoms are also often used with lubricants, but lubricants with spermicide can have an adverse effect on condoms and should be avoided. STIs can also be transmitted during foreplay, so any areas of the body that have open wounds, sores or warts (such as fingers) should not come in contact with the genitals without at least a plaster covering the risky area.

Pregnancy is also a worry for anyone having sex, and again the only way to absolutely avoid getting pregnant is to abstain from sex. A variety of birth control methods exist which can minimise the risk of pregnancy, but not one of them is 100% effective 100% of the time. The contraceptive pill, contraceptive injections, contraceptives implants, intrauterine devices such as the coil, and diaphragms/caps are all common types of contraception that can be accessed from a GP or family planning clinic. Condoms can be bought at most chemists and used alone in or conjunction with another method of contraception. If you do have unprotected sex, or if an error occurs with your preferred method of contraception, then some types of emergency contraception are also available. An emergency contraceptive pill can be taken up to three days after unprotected sex, while an intrauterine device such as the coil can be fitted up to five days after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy from occurring. Emergency contraception pills can be prescribed by doctors or bought without a prescription at pharmacies. Any type of IUD will need to be fitted by a doctor or nurse.

Saying No
There’s no shame in waiting until you are ready to lose your virginity, but it can be hard to say no to sex if your partner seems more than willing to take this big step. First and foremost, remember that if someone loves you enough to want to make love with you, he or she should also respect you enough to wait until you are ready. Many teens feel pressured to have sex before they are ready, and though you don’t owe anyone an explanation for your decisions you may feel that you want to discuss your feelings on the subject. More than anything, remember to be calm and direct if you choose to have this discussion. Very clearly state that you are not ready to have sex. Be prepared for questions such as when will you be ready, if you’re planning to remain a virgin until you are married, what you are willing to do with your romantic partner and/or do you truly care about your partner. If you have no answers for these questions, say so honestly. Ask your partner to give you the time and space you need to think about these things. It may not seem like it at the time, but if he or she is not willing to let you decide what is best for yourself then he or she is not worth worrying about anyway.

First intercourse: TIPS FOR BOYS

1. Never consider sex with a woman you don’t appreciate or think of as unattractive.
2. A rule for anytime: be always clean (i.e. always wash your genitals before an intercourse). Take a number of condoms along and try to avoid various enhancers.
3. Get everything ready in advance. Comfortable intimate atmosphere is more likely to give you the image of a good sexual experience than a fuss at the back seat of your car.
4. Don’t be quick, the more so if your partner is inexperienced too. Make sure she is aroused enough giving time to the foreplay. When she gets aroused her genitals will produce necessary lubrication to make penetration easier. There can be a problem with lubrication if she is feels uneasy herself. In this case you may use special water-based lube on her genitals that is usually sold in sex toys shop. And don’t forget about condom!
5. Sex experiments are not what you should put in practice during your first intercourse. Choose a missionary position (man on the top) and put a pillow under her buttocks. Gently open her labia and direct your penis towards vagina. Take things slowly. If she is a virgin herself, you should take a bit more efforts. Although a hymen is not a serious obstacle, this will lead to bleeding and can cause pain for your girlfriend. Start penetrating into vagina, but don’t do it deeply for the first time.
6. Neither of you should blame yourself even if you didn’t achieve orgasm. Most woman need to learn how to reach orgasm during and this doesn’t happen automatically from your first intercourse.
7. Even if you have had sex before, you can experience certain troubles during your first intercourse. If you are obsessed with the idea to get under skin, this may result in such unwanted effects as lack of erection. If you get over excited you may come too early. No matter what problems will arise think about this experience as though things were not the way you expected them to be and don’t take it too seriously. The surer you will feel the more confidence you will obtain next time.

First intercourse: TIPS FOR GIRLS

1. No matter what the reason is for your decision to loose virginity, girls always worry about their first time.
2. Use safe contraceptive and ask your partner to use condom (even if you take birth control pills).
3. Choose a comfortable place. It is necessary for you to make sure nobody will disturb your privacy and you have enough time without haste on minor things. It is also very important as you may feel quite nervous during first intercourse and it can take you more time to get relaxed and aroused.
4. Tell your partner you are a virgin and ask him to take things slowly. If you never used tampons, your vagina may be a bit tight. Your partner can help you loose vaginal muscles by introducing his finger during an intercourse.
5. It would be easier for your partner to penetrate when your legs are wide apart. You can put a pillow under your buttocks to make penetration easier. Keep water-based lubricant handy if you need more lubrication. Help your partner during penetration directing him to your vagina.
6. Never say die if your first time didn’t bring you pleasant sensations and you didn’t experience orgasm. With the time you will learn your body better and sexual relationships will improve.
7. Unlike most men, women obtain more sexual satisfaction with the partner they appreciate, know well and feel the same attitude from him. Having your first time until you get to know each other well may lead to disappointment, when a person lying next to you seems to be a stranger.

So follow one general rule: try to get over anxiety and be careful with your feelings.

A set of sexual education materials has been the focus of much public concern recently. In fact, sexual education disseminates not only knowledge, but also a set of values concerning sex. Also, it is not about sexual positions so much as it is about the nature of a healthy relationship between the sexes.

This is precisely why the government prohibits those under 18 years of age from viewing pornographic media, as the sexual relationships portrayed therein are often unhealthy and twisted; featuring rape, incest, irresponsible behavior, exaggerated duration of intercourse and the objectification of women.

Obsession and indulgence in pornography can have unhealthy effects on teens. It can potentially encourage irresponsible sexual acts, instill misguided concepts about rape and disrespectful objectification of women and provide unhealthy stimulus leading to unnaturally intense sexual urges.

However, laws cannot function in isolation, and one-sided, dogmatic forbiddance not only has very limited effect, but also goes against the basic principles of education, contributing little to students’ growth and knowledge.

A survey on the viewing of pornography among teenagers conducted by the Mercy Memorial Foundation commissioned by the Department of Health’s Bureau of Health Promotion found that 65 percent of those aged 11 to 24 have viewed pornography. Of these, 15.3 percent of upper-grade primary school students, 38.1 percent of junior high school students, 69.3 percent of high school students and 79.4 percent of university students have seen pornography.

The Department of Health confronting the problem by commissioning the Mercy Memorial Foundation to develop a sexual education curriculum designed to uncover pornography and to teach students how to make their own sexual decisions uninfluenced by pornography. The course is intended to foster critical thinking about pornography.

The basic design concept of the curriculum begins with the intimate relationship between the sexes and leads students to examine the unhealthy interactions between sexual partners in pornographic material to train their critical faculties. Finally, it allows students to acquire perspective on the nature of intimacy between individuals — that a healthy relationship is based on the expression of love, concern and kindness to one another.

Based on teaching materials designed for German children, the first segment of the curriculum for primary school students answers basic questions such as “where do I come from?” using lovable cartoons to portray the intimate relationship between parents. These cartoons clearly convey that every student is the product of their parents’ love for each other. For this reason, the fact that the cartoons are extremely cute and wholly nude, as reported by the media, does not make it “pornographic.” It is rather a healthy approach to building children’s concept of sex.

In reality, whether something is pornographic has nothing to do with the level of nudity. Full nudity is not necessarily pornographic, while, conversely, much pornography is not entirely nude. The differentiation between pornographic and non-pornographic depends on whether the intimate relationship expressed is founded upon love.

Of course, how sexual education is taught is more important that what is taught. The results of this sexual education curriculum depend on the ability of teachers to make adequate use of resources. Hence the training and cultivation of future educators will be key.

Porn without sex ed can mislead

Curious children and young adults can often be misguided by pornographic material if there is not enough adequate sex education to provide them with accurate information on the topic, speakers at a conference said yesterday.

About 100 teachers from elementary to high school levels and sex education researchers attended the conference jointly hosted by the Mercy Memorial Foundation (MMF) and the Taiwan Association for Sexuality Education (TASE) in Taipei yesterday.

Through a survey of 3,614 children and young adults from elementary school to college age, 65.4 percent said they had viewed or read materials with sexual content, such as pornographic films, pictures, comics, computer games or Web sites, TASE president Kao Sung-ching told the audience.

“Most of the students surveyed cited curiosity as one of the reasons why they viewed such materials,” Kao said. “And that’s where an adequate sex education should intervene.”

Intervention of sex education is necessary because “pornographic materials often present twisted information about sex and about interaction between people of different genders,” Kao said.

Through a detailed survey, Kao found that one of the most dangerous pieces of misinformation that heavy pornographic material users “learned” from such material was the “rape myth.”

“Some young adults think that rapes sometimes occur because victims seduce rapists — they believe that some women actually subconsciously want to be raped,” Kao said. “They think a woman doesn’t really mean it when she says `no.’”

A documentary director, nicknamed Taco, who has filmed and directed Japanese pornographic videos said that everything is planned in such videos.

“The scenarios and the positions in a porno are all pre-arranged. We often use fake semen,” he told the conference.

“The duration of the sexual act can be lengthened through editing and difficult positions usually don’t render any pleasure — actors just have to act as if they’re enjoying it,” he said.

“People can really have twisted views about sex if they `learn’ from pornos,” he said.

To provide curious students with accurate information about sex, the sex education curriculum must be open and honest, he said.

“Sex education is not just teaching about the reproductive organs,” MMF chief executive Yen Han-wen said.

Kao then showed the conference an example of a sex education curriculum that he designed.

In the curriculum, students will be involved in a discussion on how the two genders should treat each other according to social norms, as well as when it would be considered “normal” for people to hold hands, hug or kiss each other.

In the “where did I come from” section of the curriculum, Kao used cartoon strips to show how a man and a woman fall in love, get married, enjoy their married life and have sex, as well as how a child is born.

What is sex education?

Sex education, which is sometimes called sexuality education or sex and relationships education, is the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationships and intimacy. Sex education is also about developing young people’s skills so that they make informed choices about their behaviour, and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices. It is widely accepted that young people have a right to sex education, partly because it is a means by which they are helped to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.

What are the aims of sex education?

Sex education seeks both to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behaviour like unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases, and to enhance the quality of relationships. It is also about developing young people’s ability to make decisions over their entire lifetime. Sex education that works, by which we mean that it is effective, is sex education that contributes to this overall aim.

What skills should sex education develop?

If sex education is going to be effective it needs to include opportunities for young people to develop skills, as it can hard for them to act on the basis of only having information. The kinds of skills young people develop as part of sex education are linked to more general life-skills. For example, being able to communicate, listen, negotiate, ask for and identify sources of help and advice, are useful life-skills and can be applied in terms of sexual relationships. Effective sex education develops young people’s skills in negotiation, decision-making, assertion and listening. Other important skills include being able to recognise pressures from other people and to resist them, deal with and challenge prejudice, seek help from adults - including parents, carers and professionals - through the family, community and health and welfare services. Sex education that works, also helps equip young people with the skills to be able to differentiate between accurate and inaccurate information, discuss a range of moral and social issues and perspectives on sex and sexuality, including different cultural attitudes and sensitive issues like sexuality, abortion and contraception.

Forming attitudes and beliefs

Young people can be exposed to a wide range of attitudes and beliefs in relation to sex and sexuality. These sometimes appear contradictory and confusing. For example, some health messages emphasis the risks and dangers associated with sexual activity and some media coverage promotes the idea that being sexually active makes a person more attractive and mature. Because sex and sexuality are sensitive subjects, young people and sex educators can have strong views on what attitudes people should hold, and what moral framework should govern people’s behaviour - these too can sometimes seem to be at odds. Young people are very interested in the moral and cultural frameworks that binds sex and sexuality. They often welcome opportunities to talk about issues where people have strong views, like abortion, sex before marriage, lesbian and gay issues and contraception and birth control. It is important to remember that talking in a balanced way about differences in opinion does not promote one set of views over another, or mean that one agrees with a particular view. Part of exploring and understanding cultural, religious and moral views is finding out that you can agree to disagree.

People providing sex education have attitudes and beliefs of their own about sex and sexuality and it is important not to let these influence negatively the sex education that they provide. For example, even if a person believes that young people should not have sex until they are married, this does not imply withholding important information about safer sex and contraception. Attempts to impose narrow moralistic views about sex and sexuality on young people through sex education have failed. Rather than trying to deter or frighten young people away from having sex, effective sex education includes work on attitudes and beliefs, coupled with skills development, that enables young people to choose whether or not to have a sexual relationship taking into account the potential risks of any sexual activity.

Effective sex education also provides young people with an opportunity to explore the reasons why people have sex, and to think about how it involves emotions, respect for one self and other people and their feelings, decisions and bodies. Young people should have the chance to explore gender differences and how ethnicity and sexuality can influence people’s feelings and options. They should be able to decide for themselves what the positive qualities of relationships are. It is important that they understand how bullying, stereotyping, abuse and exploitation can negatively influence relationships.