Review current SRE. Remove damaging material prematurely sexualizing children.

Oct 27, 2017 by Jill

PETITION from Voice for Justice UK:

Sex and relationships education policy is failing. It is prematurely and unhealthily sexualizing children from as young as 5 years old, providing information for which they lack the intellectual and emotional capacity to process for themselves. We call on Government urgently to review current policy and to remove all such damaging and confusing material.

Evidence of damage was provided by a recent Panorama report, which revealed data from 38 of the 43 police forces of England and Wales showing 30,000 reports of child-on-child sexual assault in the last four years, marking a 71% increase. The report further revealed that 2,625 offences – with 225 alleged rapes – occurred on school premises, including primary school playgrounds, while reports of sexual offences by children aged 10 and under went from 204 in 2013-14 to 456 in 2016-17 (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/09/child-on-child-sexual-as…).

A generation – even a decade – ago, such shocking reports were virtually unknown, yet now children as young as five are being recorded as sexually assaulting their peers. It is time to acknowledge that they are being prematurely and unhealthily ‘sexualised’, not just by social and cultural pressures via television and media, but by the education programmes ostensibly designed for their protection in schools. These programmes, far from protecting them, have become a vehicle for indoctrination into the rebranded immorality and promiscuity so enthusiastically being pushed by certain adults and pressure groups with the power and determination to influence policy.

The figures demonstrate that children can neither assimilate nor cope with the sexual laissez-faire being promoted by adults. Such abuse is not the fault of children. By definition, children have enquiring minds. We want them to apply their learning and to explore – how then can we be surprised when they do that, when from the age of six we teach them the A to Z of sex, devoid of any kind of moral differentiation? So masturbation, from the age of 7 on, becomes healthy ‘self’ expression… anal sex a means of avoiding pregnancy… and so on.

Placing all the emphasis on sex, while failing to teach children how precious they are – and how special the gift of sex is – is nothing short of child abuse. It comes from adults who want to legitimise their own personal inclinations and promiscuity. Children don’t need to learn about unsavoury sexual practices like fisting or sunflowering (See, for example, the ‘Sextionary’ section of Respect Yourself, the sexual resource currently being put out to children and young people in Warwickshire [https://respectyourself.info]).

Read and sign petition here