According to advice jointly published in the early part of 2014 by Brook, the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Association, over four-fifths of parents want schools to provide lessons addressing issues surrounding pornography.
What isn’t known is whether the majority of parents want teachers to subject their children to the kind of classes advocated by the sex education lobby as the proposed content is more explicit than one might assume.
One key message in the proposals is that ‘pornography is hugely diverse, and not all of it is necessarily bad’ and that pupils need help ‘interpreting’ it.
Is this what parents want?
One recommended teaching resource is an article on TheSite website entitled ‘Porn vs Reality’. After briefly addressing six ‘porn myths’ [the titles and content of which are not suitable to publish – Editor], the article advises young people: ‘Sex is great. And porn can be great. It’s the idea that porn sex is like real sex which is the problem. But if you can separate the fantasy from the reality you’re much more likely to enjoy both’.
Norman Wells, in an article in The Daily Telegraph asked the questions: ‘Do parents really want their teachers to help their children enjoy ‘real sex’ and ‘porn sex’? Is this what they have in mind when they say they are in favour of pornography being addressed in school? Do schools that provide such education merit being regarded “safe spaces?” ’.
He continued: ‘Parents who say they think pornography should be taught in sex education lessons generally assume that their children will be taught that it is wrong and discouraged from viewing it. They do not for one moment think that it will be presented as a topic for discussion, devoid of any moral framework or direction’.
