Sex Ed for 4 Year Olds And Other Inflammatory Headlines
Posted at 11:20 AM Jul 07, 2008
This weekend the Guardian ran an article titled Give four-year-olds sex education, charities say. And if that's all you read of the article, you're supposed to be horrified.
The first three sentences are a lot less inflammatory:
Two leading sexual health charities are calling for children as young as four to be given compulsory sex education.Brook and the Family Planning Association (FPA) argue that teaching children about sex from a young age would help reduce abortion rates and sexually transmitted infections when they reach adolescence.
The charities said children should be taught the names of body parts and about sex and relationships.
Oh, body parts and relationships - that's not what that headline wants us to think when we read about sex ed for four years olds. But that's age-appropriate information for that age group - these sex ed organizations certainly aren't recommending that pre-school age children learn about rimming or anything.
And yes, that image is a cover of Time Magazine from the mid-1980s. The conversation doesn't change, just goes in circles.
--Audacia Ray
