Lets talk about Sex....

A Guardian article on a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research ( IPPR) advises that school children in primary schools - 10 year olds, should be taught sex education, and that condoms should be free or sold at low cost to teenagers in schools and sports Centres. I agree with the IPPR in that children need to be educated about sex education, but so far I'm not convinced that this should take place at school. From my experience, I think that trying to educate children about sex in a classroom environment is far from effective and fails to address issues in an upfront and honest manner. Correct me if I'm wrong, but children don't feel that they can discuss personal details with a teacher- more often than not, in the child's eye, teachers are alien beings who have no lives, and mark papers all night with a leaking red pen!! It is quite hard to see how we can benefit, therefore, from being 'taught' sex education. From what I remember of sex education lessons, there was a large box in the middle of the room and we had to place questions in the box about anything from whether we could get pregnant from sniffing a condom to whether snogging amounted to having sex..... but invariably, most papers were left blank, and the teacher just talked about sexual diseases, statistics.....etc...etc.... as you can imagine, we lost interest....fast..... So while I do note that the % of people under 16 that have sex has risen to 25 % and that we have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe, I don't think that 'lessons' in primary schools are the key. Personally, I think that we should be more innovative. We should set up groups that are run by young people to talk about issues from sex to drugs to alcohol. A perfect example of this type of thing was Youthlink Wales whose Welsh Assembly Government funding has been cut, therefore it has closed its doors finally this year. Youthlink Wales was a charity that got kids together to talk about these issues- they set up forums and groups all over Wales, made DVD's on the issues from their perspective and much more. Nobody told them what they should and shouldn't do, and the charity was run by individuals who allowed young people to think creatively- to initiate campaigns that would be effective in their eyes. Perhaps other areas should be explored to educate young people, look at how to develop teen magazines and how best to use their influences on young people, make more use of the Internet and so on. There are ideas that Senior Politicians who were young many years ago just do not consider as possible means of communicating with young people. Until we initiate campaigns that come from young people, for young people I don't think that we can tackle under age sex. If we had more community based activities for young people, I really don't think that they would perhaps experiment at such young ages. Part of the problem is that in many areas of Wales, Scotland, England, Ireland, there is nothing better to do than drink, take drugs and have sex. We need to create an environment where these activities are not the only options available for young people. I think that the IPPR's idea of selling condoms in schools and in community centres is a great idea. While in France on holiday this year, there were condom machines outside on many walls of shops- making them accessible to people- not shut away in Pubs, where lets face it, some 15 years old, or most 15 year olds (!) don't go. Ideally, sexual health clinics should provide enough free condoms and pregnancy tests for all young people, but they should be handed out for schools/ Student Union's/ Community Centres to disperse of so that the advice and help goes to the young person- not so that they have to go looking for assistance and advice as happens currently. The Government through Local Health Boards should make this a reality and make sure that sexual health funding is prioritised, and that Local Health Boards can afford to invest in services. Basically- lets talk about sex- from young people to young people, and the situation should get better.