Head teachers call for High School pornography lessons
The growing pervasiveness of pornography in the school playground, spread by the ubiquitousness of the smartphone and home PC, has prompted Britain’s head teachers to call for the introduction of pornography lessons as part of existing sex education lessons.
The controversial move is being championed by the National Association of Head Teachers in a bid to alert children to the dangers of graphic content amidst claims that eight in ten parents would support such a move.
Such lessons could be made available to children as soon as they are old enough to access the internet, raising the possibility that they could be offered to five year olds.
Russell Hobby, NAHT general secretary, said: “There is no place for explicit materials in the classroom or school, even in the course of teaching about their dangers, but many young people are exposed to such materials on the internet and phones.
“In the face of this young people need to know how to cope with and avoid these distorted views of relationships… In a fast-paced communications environment that can present pupils with confusing messages, few parents believe there is an option to pretend it isn’t happening.”
The call to action is based on a survey of 1,000 parents, 83 per cent of whom agreed that ‘issues around pornography’ should be dealt with in the classroom. 42 per cent of those quizzed said that such lessons should be delivered as early as possible, even those ‘as young as five or six’.