Child sex education A tool to prevent abuse?

 

In July, the Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and the Executive agreed to the processing of a bill whose objective is to advance education in affectivity and sexuality to early childhood and to stop teaching in Primero Medio, as is currently done. The proposal, presented by Deputy Camila Rojas, proposes that sex education in educational establishments begin in Pre-Kindergarten and last until the Middle Quarter.

During that session, the Undersecretary of Early Childhood Education, María José Castro, commented that there are risky behaviors that increase in young people and that must be faced, adding that "we share the need to advance in that our young people reduce risky behaviors and that younger children can distinguish when they are facing the abuse of an adult , so that they can make assertive decisions, a criterion that is formed in children early."

Miranda Horvath and Afroditi Pina, from Middlesex University in the UK, conducted research in 2013 on the effects that access to and exposure to pornography have on children and young people. Among their arguments, they highlighted the sex education policies of Sweden and Denmark.

Sweden made history in 1955 when it became the first country in the world to make sex and gender education compulsory through a plan that has been updated from time to time, integrating since 2011 the promotion of gender equality in classrooms. Currently, sex education begins at the age of 11, or at the fifth level of primary school.

In Denmark, meanwhile, since 1970 sex education has been compulsory within the school curriculum and begins to be taught in the early years, but despite the good reputation that this gives it, in March last year Amnsitía Internacional published that it is one of the countries with the highest rates of rape in Europe , where widespread legislation and gender stereotypes have systematically given impunity to rapists.

Is it useful to advance sex education to early childhood as a way to prevent sexual abuse?

According to Unesco, yes. In 2009 they published that the main objective of sex education is to equip children and young people with the knowledge, tools and values that allow them to make responsible decisions in relation to their sexual and social relations. Just as sex education teaches about the risks and prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, it also trains children on the risks of.