School kids are badly affected by how readily available porn is, argues teacher

7 January 2020, 17:19

The secondary school teacher called in to talk about sex education at schools.

She said to Eddie Mair that the "students really do engage" and she is really heartened by the "maturity" of her students.

The caller, Natalie, said in inner city schools, it can be harder to make "breakthroughs or connections with some particular students".

She added: "It's really hard to kind of monitor the quality of the kind of teaching and delivery of these things as well."

It's particularly difficult, the teacher said, to tackle the issue of pornography.

She did say, however, that sex education lessons can be a "source of complaining" from parents. Other parents, on the other hand, "are really grateful for that input because it's a difficult conversation to have."

Eddie Mair asked: "Do you think this this particular generation because of social media and the ready availability of pornography, do you think it's much more difficult for them?"

Natalie replied: "Yes, I do."

She spoke about the huge proportion of 11-year-olds who have already accessed pornography.

She spoke about her experience of having "highly sexualised comments from some young men" when she was at school.

Natalie thinks schools could take a "harder line" on students such as these.

"We have to take a hard line with it", she reiterated.

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