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Mums want us to teach on porn

Mumsnet survey reveals that parents think that schools should do Sex and Relationship lessons on sexting, Porn and the media.  (Click here to read their results)  


This survey was done in November last year (not sure when they announced the results) so again I am a little slow on reading it. But it is a great encouragement to be reading this the day before I teach my first test lesson looking at how media (especially pornography) distorts sex. To be honest I have been a bit suspicious of the mumsnet group. I assumed (wrongly, I apologise) that they would be against sex education of their children. I am so glad to be proven wrong. 




The results of this survey are a fantastic stamp of approval to my aims. With 80% of respondents agreeing that sex and relationship education should include "Sex education should explore sex and the media (to include subjects such as sexting* and pornography)." But when they break it down into age groups i was surprised to see that the majority 37% thought pornography should be tackled at KS3 (11-13 years old) closely followed by KS4 (14-16 year olds) with 33%. Sexting follows the same trend with 44% thinking it is a KS3 issue and only 24% thinking it should wait till KS4. Both my pornography and sexting lessons are aimed at year 10 (KS4) but I have taught the sexting lesson at KS3. The results of this survey make me consider if I need to aim younger?

Consulting parents in Sex and Relationship education is vital. One of my aims to develop my work in Chester is to do this directly with local parents but in the absence of this local data survey like this are very important. They help Sexual health workers to target their work better. Whilst we would never work only off parental opinion it is a mistake to ignore it as parents have such valuable information about what their children are dealing with personally. 

I am really looking forward to my first lesson on pornography tomorrow. I imagine it will be an eye opener for both myself and the students. I will write up a report on these lessons later in the week. 
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