Sex Education And What are the Parents’ Responsibilities

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that sex education is a controversial topic since different countries in the world have different take on it. Furthermore, the conflicting religious beliefs with the modern standards of sex education also result in heated debates with no results. No matter how controversial the subject is, its importance cannot be taken away and there is a responsibility on the shoulders of parents when it comes to educating their children on sex. People can have different beliefs about sex education but the most important thing is that every parent must have some strategy on education his/her children on sex rather than leaving the subject untouched.

Psychology Of The Youth And Sex

Youth is the time of anyone’s life when one is curious about everything or at least things that interest a person. Most people are able to discover a little about sexuality and sex related matters in their childhood. Furthermore, with internet and TV in every corner of the world it is hard to believe that a person would be unaware of sexuality and sex related matters. Young adults and teenagers are curious about sex just the way they are curious about other things. However, discovering most of the things about this matter in their teenage and adolescence may come as a surprise to them.
When something creates interest in a young person he’ll go for it and try it. Psychology of humans is that they are more intrigued to do what they are prevented and deterred from doing. In short, it is difficult to imagine that young blood can be stopped from following its passions and curiosity. The best thing to prevent illegal sex and premature pregnancies from occurring is to educate the youth about sex. Various studies have shown that abstinence-only and abstinence-until-marriage programs have remained ineffective in preventing unintended pregnancies and unsafe sex. Furthermore, with HIV Aids spreading as an epidemic in Africa, you couldn’t say that abstinence programs or taking conversation about sex as taboo would do any good.

Parents, Children And Sex Education

Parents and teachers are the best people to educate children on sex. While your teenage boy is discovering facts about sex and sexuality in his friends, on internet and school, and you are busy keeping the topic a secret, you are only creating a communication barrier between you and your child. A teenager who involves in sexual intercourse without protection can easily argue that he was never told about protection and contraception by anyone, or at least by his parents. According to a report on the statistics of 2005 there were nearly 750,000 teenagers getting pregnant annually but two-thirds of these pregnant teenagers quit school before completing their high school after giving birth to babies.

STDs and other sex related diseases are still on the rise but young adults and teenagers have no one to share their miseries with and they end up in depression. If only parents were there to talk about these matters these young children would have had more knowledge of what they were doing, or at least they would have had someone to tell their story to and relieve their anguish. The legislations and laws dealing with sex, sexuality and sex education are improving in countries around the world and now is the time for parents to come out of this fear and tell their children what’s right and wrong.