Parents would be “deeply disturbed” if they were aware of guidance from sex education campaigners about how schools should address issues surrounding pornography, the Director of the Family Education Trust has said.
In an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph, Mr Wells discusses new advice launched by Brook, the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Association to supplement the government's sex and relationships education guidance.
One teaching resource recommended by the groups, entitled ‘Porn vs Reality’, advises young people: "Sex is great. And porn can be great. It’s the idea that porn sex is like real sex which is the problem. But if you can separate the fantasy from the reality you’re much more likely to enjoy both.”
Another "useful resource" advises teachers that "pornography is hugely diverse – it’s not necessarily 'all bad'", and that children simply need assistance in "interpreting" it.
Mr Well says that while parents generally assume that their children will be taught that pornography is wrong and will be discouraged from viewing it, the proposed advice would “compound the problems associated with the sexualisation of children” and “run the very real danger of arousing a curiosity to search out more pornography”.
He adds that parents need to ask searching questions about precisely what pornography lessons would consist of and "about the moral framework within which the subject would be addressed”.