Banning sex education for children under nine could be “incredibly harmful”, experts have warned, as young people may end up learning the realities of life through disturbing online pornography.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan will announce a complete ban on sex education for babies, with lessons not allowed to start until at least Year 5.
Other proposals include ruling that gender identity be taught as a “controversial subject” in schools.
But five experts have told MailOnline that the ban could have shocking unintended consequences for young people.
Dr. Amanda Gummer, who specializes in child development, said “sweeping sex under the rug” is “dangerous and naive.”
Dr. Amanda Gummer says withdrawing sex education for under-9s will push children to get their sex education through disturbing online pornography.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan will announce a complete ban on sex education for babies, with lessons not allowed to start until at least Year 5.
She said: ‘Children need answers to their questions and nothing should be taboo. The sooner sex and reproduction are introduced as a normal part of life, the less stigma there will be around it, the less it will be seen as “naughty” and the healthier the relationship they will have with it.
‘Talking to children about the biological facts of reproduction can happen as soon as children start asking questions about it.
‘Removing formal sex education from schools, given children’s exposure to the Internet from an increasingly younger age, is truly dangerous. Children will end up receiving sex education through pornography, which could be incredibly harmful.’
Last year, an alarming report by Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza found that one in 10 children had viewed online pornography by the time they were nine.
A quarter of young people in their final year of primary school, aged 10 to 11, were found to have viewed explicit sexual content, much of which featured violence.
Four in 10 young people aged 16 to 21 believed that girls “enjoy” aggressive sex, such as choking and slapping.
Dr Gummer said sex education classes in primary schools should deal with the biological facts of where babies come from to help “demystify” it, and parents should be willing to get involved.
Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza found that one in 10 children had viewed online pornography by the time they were nine.
“The more kids can interpret and discuss this in a safe, non-threatening, open way so it doesn’t become taboo, the healthier it will be,” she said. ‘A play-based approach really helps them understand it for themselves. And I think it shouldn’t all fall on the schools.
‘It is naive and dangerous to try to protect children from the facts of life, because they want to know about them. It’s fascinating and for generations children have tried to discover these kinds of things in one way or another.
‘Nowadays it is very easy to access the Internet. “If you don’t talk to kids about it, if they don’t have a trusted, authoritative source to go to if they have questions, they’re going to turn to the Internet.”
He added that concepts like love, trust, relationships and fidelity are “a little irrelevant” to children before they hit puberty, so lessons dealing with those things can wait until later in life.
“When it comes to gender issues, what is taught in schools must be based on facts and evidence,” she said. ‘Gender as a construct versus gender as a biologically determined factor remains controversial. But so are many things related to monogamy, love, and relationships. So it can also be part of the conversation, as long as it’s not presented as scientific fact.’
Dr. Gummer, founder of the Good game guide For parents, she said sex education has been “conflated” with gender identity issues, leading to both being removed from the curriculum.
“I think the two things are pretty separate,” he said. ‘Sex education should essentially be a science lesson. The gender debate can be saved for PHSE lessons.
“It’s important to distinguish the two when you teach children, because one is biological facts and the other is very influenced by your religion, your culture, your geography, your age… and your opinions about those things can change over time.
“Sweeping sex under the rug and pretending that children won’t have access to any information about it until they are older is dangerous and naive.”
Child development expert Dr Jacqueline Harding said the ban could raise safeguarding issues by preventing schools from reacting to pupils’ individual needs.
Dr. Jacqueline Harding believes that banning sex education for under-9s will eliminate schools’ ability to respond to individual students’ needs.
“My immediate concern is how much of this has been the subject of solid investigation and how much is politically motivated,” he said.
‘It is a mistake to strip headteachers of their power to respond intelligently and sensitively to particular issues within their school, particularly those of safeguarding.
‘Schools are already required to inform parents about the sex education lessons their children will receive, and parents can now withdraw their children from these classes if they wish.
‘Have children’s needs really been considered from all angles? Have all potential safeguarding issues been carefully thought through?
‘The government says the new limits are based on advice from an expert panel. I would love to see the advice from this mysterious panel. It should be based on substantial research, not just hunches or opinions.
‘Flexibility is needed because life is not orderly. Politicians are unaware of the real-life issues that children face in all schools, including safeguarding issues such as sexual violence or exposure to inappropriate images.
‘If a school is suddenly faced with a particular situation, such as sharing an inappropriate image with an eight-year-old child, then schools should be allowed to make decisions based on the best interests of the children in that class. ‘
Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and founder of a gender campaign group GenspectHe said banning sex education is a knee-jerk response to concerns about oversexualization and the teaching of gender identity in schools.
Psychotherapist Stella O’Malley says sex education has been wrongly “linked” to gender identity
She said: ‘Banning sex education for under 9s is a direct result of the world becoming more sexualised for children. It feels like a violent response and a bit over the top.
‘Children need to know about their bodies. They don’t need to know everything about sex, but they do need to know about boundaries and what’s private and what’s not.
“I think sex has been conflated with gender identity and that makes me very uncomfortable. 10 years ago no one was teaching about gender identity and suddenly in some places it is being taught as a fact, which is totally inappropriate.
‘Mixing it with sex education has made everything very confusing. They are two very, very different topics. The ban on sex education suggests that the government has accepted that the two are intertwined, which is not good for anyone.’
Pediatrician Dr. Katie Malbon said girls start their periods earlier, even as young as eight, so restricting education about sex and contraception until after this point “only tells half the biological story.”
“This will only lead to more unanswered questions,” he said.
Jas Schembri-Stothart, co-founder of teenage wellness app Luna, said: “It is absurd that we deny children access to accurate and reliable sex education when we know that puberty does not fit into school year schedules and that many Children begin to experience changes in their body long before they reach year 5.
‘When we don’t provide them with safe environments to learn about their bodies and feelings, we push them even closer to unreliable and often very dangerous sources of online information. “I talk to young girls every day and the misinformation they find on platforms like TikTok is really scary.”