I would like to congratulate the author on this article. I believe this article attempts to hide nothing, and makes known many of the issues regards sex education.

I personally can only highlight that I think that our society has become too awash with sex and violence in the media for it to be healthy. Sex and violence sells, and the media must begin to take responsibility for what they show.

It is no use saying that parents should monitor their children’s exposure to sex and violence in the media, because there is so much that it becomes impossible. More moderation is required by the media, and this includes magazines, TV, pictures, music, PC games, advertisements etc.

The other area of personal concern, becomes how much sex education is carried out in the schools and how much at home by the parents. I personally have found it very difficult to find out what the high schools are teaching the students with regards anything, and when it comes to matters such as sex education, then are they teaching something different to what I am trying to teach my child, or can my teaching be run in parallel with that of the schools. Very difficult, when you don’t now what the school is doing.

Have any of the "brains?" behind sex education realised that it is possibly better to teach the parents first.(Sex education belongs in the home of nurturing loving parents). Then have these parents deeply involved in sex education at the school. YES I know with many uninterested parents it would be difficult. Yet many parents would attend with their children and all would learn.

I watched a sex educational lesson some time back and the teacher demonstrated how to fit a condom would you believe to a mixed class.

Now these sex "educators?" must have thought that the males in this class were complete,utter and total morons. Did they think that these dumb blokes would try to fit the condom over their noses or perhaps their heads? As for the girls were these sex "educators?" telling them that it was their responsibility to 'dress' their stupid partner as they - the girls - were the lesser creatures and had to take the role of minder. Or were /are these sex "educators/teachers?" a pack of dirty perverts getting their thrill or fix for the day? Or maybe they were just reinforcing the notion that single sex is great and if you wear these condoms you will have no problems even emmotional problems, and emmotional problems especially for the female are the bad ones. These pedophiles are letting our children down and, as said, they are absolutely stupid or dribbling ugly perverts and pedophiles of the worst type - LEGAL PEDOPHILES. Regards, numbat

As the author and the first respondent admit, today's society, especially the media in all its facets, is "awash with sex and violence", and any attempt to "nomalise abstinence" would involve "a seismic social shift." But while both use all the correct language, neither writer seems to appreciate the task being proposed. No concrete strategies are put forward, and in a way that is not surprising - the chances of any success in fundamentally changing media content, particularly in the short term, are laughably small.

Meanwhile, children are still growing up in this society, and what we need are realistic strategies for steering them through the perils of emerging sexuality. If abstinence training cannot be effective without a major social shift (and certainly statistics from the US indicate that recommendations of abstinence are far from effective), then surely we need to consider other options.

Rate's plea for better (and more) counselling services is a step in the right direction, but tying this to unrealistic dogma is a mistake for which today's children will pay the price

Numbat, Chris_B

Numbat, I would agree that the parents are highly necessary for children’s sex education, but also study after study has now found a significant correlation between teenage pregnancy and the removal of fathers from families.

In the study shown at the posting, http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=3066#3317 the loss of the father from the daughter’s life can increase the chances of the daughter becoming pregnant by up to a factor of 8.

I know of no other factor like it, and the father’s general presence can have an enormous positive affect on the daughter. Attempts by organisations to carry out wide-scale removal of fathers from families and from their children to produce a fatherless society now seriously affect the female gender itself.

There are 1,000 divorces per week in this country, and more often than not, the father is removed from his children following that divorce. But counsellors or even sex education programs cannot replace fathers, and the more society ignores fathers and tries to remove them from families, the greater the negative affects become.

Chris_B, The amount of sex and violence in the media has definitely increased in time, and current TV programs would have been taken off the air due to public complaint if they were shown when TV first came out during the 1960’s. That would be a fact, and even the lyrics to popular songs are now almost pornographic.

However all is not lost (yet) and if the issue is considered as a health issue, then steps can be done to overcome it.

At present, media standards boards such as the APC and the ABA are highly centralised and quite often toothless tigers. If those boards were decentralised, such that media standards representatives were in employed in every main media company (IE similar to safety officers or environmental officers being employed in industrial companies), then there might be better localised control over media standards.

However having highly centralised, toothless tiger standards boards such as the ABA will probably mean that media standards just get worse over time.

Sex education, like everything else, needs to be done properly and professionally taking into all aspects of sex and sexuality, thoroughly examining the issues and attempting to be as unbiased as possible.

Just as mathematics is taught in that teachers go through algebra, logarithms, arthmetic, geometry etc (hopefully without bias towards one area), the same principles should be appled to sex education. Sex education should be as uncontroversial as teaching maths.

Naturally this won't happen anytime soon. But it would be useful to take a more dispassionate view that we already apply to maths or science.

Thanks for this thought-provoking and down-to-earth piece.

Ms Campbell Rate's article is, I think, another indication of Religious Fundamentalism by stealth.

Fair enough, some of the points she raises are valid. But at no point does she disclose her religious affiliation or the religious foundation - and purpose - of the so-called "Open Doors Counselling" service to which she defers/belongs.

A quick surf in its website shows that it is conspiquously silent on its religious agenda and identity; betrayed only by its predictable psycho-babble on homosexuality (it's a dangerous "lifestyle" and boys are "vulnerable"), and it's dismissal of condoms as good controceptive measures (they are fallible, break, spread disease and get girls pregnant). This is classic, fundo, church-based misinformation.

Just as the "Family First Party" hides behind it's Assembley's of God foundation, and just as the Koorong "cafes and bookstores" springing up around the outer suburbs try to disguise their fire and brimstone behind latte facades, so too does Ms Campbell Rate.

Laundering religious ideology into secular arguments is an increasing trend of the religious Right as it tries to slip under the radar of a society that doesn't like bible bashers. Particularly as the Howard Government looks more and more to Church groups/charities to administer welfare and employment services

We should all be alert to it.

Kelpie
PERTH

Well, what a closed minded little bigot you are Kelpie.

Did you bother to read the article at all? What did you think? Any comment on the substance? Any thoughts on the issues raised? No nothing. Only a silly little tirade because YOU think it might, maybe, could, probably, possibly, come from a Christian organisation!

The idea that you could suggest that religious people's views should be ignored for that reason, is the very definition of religious discrimination.

Alison Campbell Rates' words show us a person concerned with helping solve a large problem in society. Yours just show us another large problem in society that needs solving.

Alison's article raises many important questions and society needs to respond with some urgency.

Any education could be described as an abuse if its imparted without various regard as to whom it's directed at, especially in terms of age and mental, physical, sexual and emotional development. No reasonable person would educate a child in the use of machine guns (except given warlords in some parts of Africa, such as Uganda) but there would be no wrong...indeed there would be an obligation..in providing such information to an adult who needs to protect family/society.

In reality, no sex education is child abuse.Let's be positive about that.

Alison also needs to define her labels. What's "better" sex education? Surely it's comprehensive biological information;information on reproductive rights and responsibilities; disease; and, critically, human relationships.

Far from giggling over fitting condoms to bananas,why not take students down to the nearest VD clinics.Not simply more knowledge, but more care, more understanding, more realisation.Reality rather than imagination.

Why not more support for the "baby" programs in which girls take programmed baby dolls home that shriek for attention at all hours of the day and night, bringing the outcomes of pregnancy into real focus. But, make sure the boys do it too.

And, Alison, please let's abandon that absurd phrase "safe sex"..there's no such animal. "Safer", maybe.

In time, it won't be the matter of abortion that holds the spotlight but rather the tidal wave of infertility that's being threatened by soaring STD rates.

There's no overall "best choice"..this will always be governed by a host of individual considerations that generally get scant attention in the heat of the moment.

We'd like to see HIV messages in the mainstream media rather than being confined to darkened gay saunas.

How many Australians know they're HIV infected? Increasingly..dangerously..such infections are being downplayed in terms of it being a chronic but manageable disease...It's a life destroying disease, and, eventually, it will steal your life.

Please visit our HIV information website at http://www.aids.net.au

Regards,

Brian Haill,
President,
The Australian AIDS Fund inc.,
Melbourne.
Email: bhaill@bigpond.net.au

My Dear Bozzie (Oscar Wilde readers will enjoy that reference), I did read the article and no, I don't think I'm a narrow minded bigot despite your apoplectic outburst to the contrary.

I have no concern with "Christians expressing opinions" or with "religious organisations doing good in the community" - to paraphrase your allegations.

What I resent is unacademic, unobjective, often dangerous, blind religious prejudice masquarding as objective, secular concern. I find it dishonest. Much like the religious anti-abortion centres calling themselves "Pregnancy Advice Centres" and offering "counselling." It's a lie designed to hide the truth.

It's not "Christian Organisations" to which I object, but religious organisations which pretend they are not. Because behind their false secular shopfront is a fervent ideology that drives a harsh social and political agenda which can harm people and communities.

If religious people and groups cannot gain popular support by being open and honest about thier agenda, then we must question their motivation in going into denial and camoflage to pursue it.

Kelpie
PERTH

I, too am sick and tired of what I call, "fundamental infiltration by stealth". These types of organisations should be up front in everything they do - ie Alison Campbell Rate should have made it clear that the organisation she represents employs Judeo-Christian "values" and then the reader could transparently see where her views stem on sex education stem from. It's dishonest for fundamentalists to "hide" behind non-secular veils.

Kelpie,

Although I disagree with many of the policies espoused by Christian groups, I think they have as much right as anyone to say what they believe and say it in any way they believe will gain the most acceptance. It's disappointing that in many left wing circles Christian views are seen as somehow illegitimate. I'm sure Christian views are in many ways closer to mainstream Australia then some of the loony left ideas bandied around as legitimate (eg menstrual leave for women!).

For the record, I'm much more liberal than most people on this issue. A comparison of the US and The Netherlands is a good example. The US has one of the highest teenage pregnancy/AIDS/STDs rates in the world, while The Netherlands has around the lowest. The difference: in The Netherlands sex isn't a dirty word. It's simply a natural part of life; often used to strengthen relationships, more often used for fun and sometimes even used to procreate.

In that context, I think Campbell's assertion that sex education for 10yos is somehow abuse is disgusting. Sex is thrust upon us in almost every aspect of our lives. I've seen advertisements for women’s stockings, bras, and underwear on STA buses! I'm sure children have too! What about TV? We're force fed sex every time we turn on the TV, it sells everything from ..... well, just everything!! Even sitcoms are called things like "Sex in the City" Why should children be able to see sex everywhere they look but then not be properly informed about it?

To me it seems crazy. It would be better if we were less sex obsessed AND better informed.

If common sense is to prevail, then perhaps some of the good ideas coming from Christian quarters should be acknowledged for what they are – good ideas. Our public education system is not invoking great pride or confidence of late.

http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/03/06/1110044258576.html

As a newcomer to these forums, I am interested to see that articles relating to sex seem to receive the greatest number of comments.

And by far, tthe majority of those comments come from people with a religious agenda.

All of which confirms my opinion that the really sex-obsessed people in Western society today are the 'Christians' of the Hillsong-variety.

Get your noses out of other people's bedrooms and go and do some real work on your Boss' behalf.

Alison makes some interesting points. The age appropriatness of sex education being one of them. With the plethora of sex information and education available - different things - it is too easy for parents to over look their responsibiltiy to place it in some kind of context for the child as it develops; call it a value system. It is easy also to abrogate themselves of the responsibiltiy to support their children and make sense of the information available under the assumption that the kid knows it all.

Alisons also points to an unmet need amongst girls. Should any of us go to any major public hospital offering ante natal and abortion services there an interesting dichotomy between clients. A high number of teenage women, often at school and sneaking out between classes confirming their pregnancy, elect the ante natal option; The young women in suits tend to opt for the abortive solution.The teenagers seem to need to keep the child.

A substantial gap exists between an awareness of the mechanics of sex, pregnacy and disease transmission and the maturity required to freely elect to have a child, or an abortion.

Few people I know would endorse abortion as an intrinsic "good". Even those who endorse it as a right for those who choose it as an option. The same could be said of teenage pregnancy in the context of western society where it remains stigmatised and an indicator to ongoing socio economic hardship.

Between the ideological positions arguing for enhanced sex education, mandated abstinence or abortion on demand, there needs to be found space to examine the needs of those who find them selves pregnant and faced with difficult choices.

Sadly the need of women who might find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy is lost within a war of words. This fact is never more evident than in the pages of this journal where more energy is devoted to proving ones point in some kind of perverse pissing contest between contributors rather than in a search for some form of solution on the way to the truth. Inkeemagee

Alison I think your parents should have abstained.
The school system has the responsibility to teach the facts not the fallacies.
Sex is a good thing not a bad thing (your faith may teach that sex is bad but that is your loss) and all young people should be taught how to do it safely. It funny that the bible belt states in the US have a much bigger problem then the us but the god bothers use then as good examples. As with most thing religious it defies logic.

Ron, Kelpie & Concerned Citizen:You three have a weird perception of Christianity and you really hate and attack this warped and pathetic perception of yours eh? The topic is sex education for children not what your fellow forum members believe.
When I was a young lad we had our 'dirty' magazines one of the was "Man Magazine" The centre fold contained photos of women which today are eclipsed by the pages of underwear advertisements in store brochures delivered to our letter boxes. Then of course as mentioned lewed and even filthy TV sex shows, porn on the net.Then the brainless twits of girls who are cheerleaders - for the dirty old men in the stands .Then added to this we have the pathetic sex educators who show kids how to fit condoms. Who is to blame - ALL OF US no matter if we believe in a Creator God who teaches that sex is GOOD! between married couples, and to be thoroughly enjoyed by both of them.Or whether we belive in the tooth fairy or are silly enough to believe in nothing. This sex problem is all our fault. One because some of us adults are warped and involved in it.Others, the majority just go along with the filth and say nothing. Look at the perverts in the Sydney homosexual parade WE ALL in one way or the other condone these bloody unfortunates.If hetrosexuals paraded as these unfortunates do we would probaly be arrested and locked up but not them. Our children see us watching these shows at the same time we are telling them to be decent and chaste and send them to sex education classes. What a pack of bloody dribbling piddling hypocrites we are and our kids will be worse. We have I think almost lost this battle and it is our collective fault.
So believers and unbelievers and all in-between wake up and do something to clean the place up if only for our children's sake Regards, numbat

Once again Numbat you demonstrate not only your hate but also your ignorance. I believe there is a large parade in some south American country the is long similar lines as the Sydney one with one exception it is a largely hetro one. To believe there was no explicit porn in the when you were a boy is contrary to the evidence. Our ANZACs where able to buy very explicit bestiality photos during their adventures and a short search on the web can give you a good history of porn. Have you have actually read the instructions on how to put on a condom there is a couple of important points to do and I don’t understand why you think it wrong to show both sexes how to do it. After all the airlines show you how to put your seatbelt on every time you fly be you think that is silly of pathetic too! If you don’t want to be a hypocrite then sell that large porn collection your watching in front of them. I would contend that most problems in regard to sex in western society is because of oppressive religious teaching not the so called sexual revolution of the sixties. Hell the majority of Christians get their advice in this area from a unmarried virgin male!

Kenny I worry about you, Yes a hetro sex parade is WRONG. NO! I do not hate queers. I said in my letter that I did look at the centre fold in the 'Man Magazine'which in those far off days was porn. Yes I have seen other porn which was not right. How many ANZACS bought and looked at bestiality photos? all of them. a few of them? a very few of them? Bringing in the Anzacs is a pathetic ploy on your part kenny but again to watch bestiality is wrong, very wrong and totally pathetic!No I have never read how to put a condom on I suppose that I saw it as self evident, I suppose I am cleverer than you.Kenny a seat belt on an aircraft is entirely different than a condom. They even fit on different parts of a man's body.I can see now how you may have had problems with a condom, you do not wrap it around your waist Kenny.I do not have a large or even a small porn collection at all Kenny. Kenny neither did I get advice from a virgin but from a being or God who invented sex.
So Kenny you do not know much about me at all eh?

Speaking personally as someone who has recently been through the education system and now in university, seeing the effects of the same rhetoric that was espoused at high school repeated again by the universities, both the official bodies and by the Student associations and unions, I have to agree with a lot of what Alison has to say here.

My fellow teens / ‘twenty something’s’ are more than adequately academically aware of the issues of sex. We’ve seen it, heard it, been there and done that when it comes to sex ed, and the dangers of ‘unprotected’ sex and the consequences of, well shall we say ‘partaking liberally’. We’ve heard enough to switch off when it comes to STD’s, and yet we still act surprised when invariably someone contracts one.
So what’s the problem for my mates from where I stand, admittedly amongst them?
We’ve never been offered an alternative. The ‘educators’ whether that be at uni or high school gave out advice on issues like ‘safety’ and ‘health’ on the one hand, whilst still all but pressuring us to be out there and active, ‘exploring and seeking to understand’ our ‘sexuality’. In a society where everything goes, we’ve always been taught to do what we want, when we want it, and that there are ways out of anything that might be a side effect, and that these consequences (although never labelled that) are a natural thing. So whilst we’ve accepted treatment for weird and wonderful diseases and growths and abortions and whatnot, we’ve never even had it suggested to us that there might be boundaries or guidelines out there in life.

I think that maybe we should reassess the way we ‘educate’ and see that sex is part of our lives, part of who we are, and that there’s more to teaching than simply knowledge, and there’s more ways to live than simply the expedient, perhaps men can be taught to wait… or maybe their all just too selfish…

Life goes on and from an early age we're curious until puberty and then the hormonal urges take hold. The embarrasment of fronting the chemist for a condom and the fear of getting a girl pregnant was what kept me a virgin until I was nineteen.
The religious adherents to Christian fairy tales preach abstinence until marriage and from my experience ,the only sex education their children got was from a bible.....and there is not a lot of sex education in that book..Other than the immaculate conception which really didn't turn me on.
My first sexual experience was not dirty or depraved but a warm loving relationship which was enhanced by mutual gratification.
In a perfect world the facts of procreation of all living things can be relayed to children in biology class and the dangers of unprotected sex and promiscuity are material for older students who at increasingly earlier ages need information.
The role of moral guardian becomes the responsibility of parents but how many parents choose the moment and sit down and talk to their children about 'sex' Most are too bloody scared they might give the kids the impulse to go out and procreate. so they say nothing and the kids find out for themselves by trial and error...
After all they are only human....

Kenny... b4 I forget, pls provide me with an email I can send an important pic to you. (open a short term account if u need to protect your normal privacy) I mentioned it in another thread, but haven't heard from you. U can write to me at jdrmot@bigpond.net.au if u want to give it there. Serious.
Did u look at the first para or 2 in the article ?

==>"they are pregnant because of deep-seated unmet needs. Depression, unresolved grief, family dysfunction and poor parenting commonly drive teens to look to a sexual relationship for replacement love, acceptance and comfort"

Now, there is a good handle to pin some constructive OR destructive criticism on, rather than just playing your usual 'death to religion' mantra. Take that assertion of the author, and either kill it with facts or glorify it with similar facts. It scratches where I itch for sure, not even thinking about religion.

I received an sms from a female friend today, who I KNOW is looking for the kind of love described above, in it she says "I don't know if it was Ian, or Joe, or Marten or etc.. about 5 names of guys she had unprotected sex with, now she is pregnant. That is the result of a society gone wrong. Every DAY we are assailed with the most intense portrayals of 'cool' attractive people on MTV gyrating with all the 'sexual' moves pushing it down our kids throats, 'its good.. do it.. look, we all are into it' etc.. not seeing the real cost and emptiness on peoples lives.

Kenny, intimacy has been hijacked by commmercial interests, sad that you appear to be one of their victims.

I can’t quite put a finger on it, but for some reason whenever I read Kenny’s comments, my support for pro-choice increases. His arguments no doubt bring an inordinate balance to the proceedings.

Maracas: You and your partner have been truly blest and to read your experience was very wonderful and uplifting - THANKYOU very much. Fond regards, numbat

"Laundering religious ideology into secular arguments is an increasing trend of the religious Right as it tries to slip under the radar of a society that doesn't like bible bashers. Particularly as the Howard Government looks more and more to Church groups/charities to administer welfare and employment services"

The laundering of religious ideology these days can result in a teacher or civil servant never working again. The fetishing of childhood is not a positive development, children have to dissociate to survive their education

Good article Alison. About time we had some common sense on this topic.

Kenny, your hatred of Christian morality is perverse. It will consume you.

I note that so many people on this forum really hate Christian morality and despise Christians who suggest that Christian morality is the best thing for our kids and will save them from a lot of pain and heart-ache.

However, it is said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Look at what liberal sex education has achieved: huge increases in STIs, huge increase in infertility, unwanted pregnancies which make it difficult for girls to complete education, increased abortions and the resulting post-abortion trauma, increased family and marriage break-down etc etc.

Liberal sex education has had its turn and has been found wanting. Valueless and clueless sex educators have been hammering kids with their values free anything-goes sexual fantasies for at least 15 years now and look where it has got us. It has made things an order of magnitude worse and it will take several generations to recover.

It's time we gave kids some REAL sex education. It's time we told taught them about monogamy, pregnancy, faithfulness, intimacy, love, respect, honour, responsibility and the spiritual side of sex, rather than just the plain and dispassionate mechanics of it all, and instant or short-term gratification. It's time they knew that condoms don't protect against the most common STIs (ie. HPV and herpes) and that homosexuality is a very dangerous, unhealthy and painful lifestyle.

Let's chuck the "religious ideology" of the liberal left secular humanists, homosexuals and lesbians. They have done nothing but immeasurable harm to our kids and our society.