Should 11 year olds learn to put on a condom?
An official government report in the UK recommends that children as young as 11 should be given compulsory lessons on sexually transmitted diseases and contraception. All secondary students should be taught about infections such as chlamydia and also taught how to put on a condom.
The document, compiled by a panel of sexual health experts for Ministers, has horrified and angered many parents who do not want their children involved in explicit lessons on sex. The current law says that pupils must only be taught the bare minimum biology of sex, and how the body changes during puberty. Teachers are encouraged to teach students about relationships, how STDs are transmitted and how to use contraception, including how condoms are put on. Most teachers allow parents to exclude their children from these classes.
The UK has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe and abortion rates are climbing towards 200,000 a year. Will teaching a child how to put on a condom ensure that he will use it when the time comes? Maybe. I think it would be a good idea to not only teach kids about sex but also what a healthy, monogamous relationship is like.
If sex and relationships education is made a statutory subject, then parents would have no say on what is taught. It will be a biggie to get some parents to agree. Sure, they should have input but parents have been in control all this time and their guidance certainly hasn’t lowered teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections!
The sexual health report, released July 28th, also called for easier access to abortion and better availability of contraceptives. Its main recommendation was on making sexual and relationship education (SRE) a statutory responsibility for secondary schools.
Making sex and relationship education compulsory will secure its place in the curriculum with equal access for all students, and will ensure schools have appropriately trained teachers.
Baroness Gould, who chaired the group, said: ‘We must have consensus that good sex and relationships education is essential if we want our young people to live free from disease, have reduced pregnancy and abortion rates, and experience fulfilled sexual lives as adults.
Rebecca Findlay, from the Family Planning Association, said the problems of teen pregnancy, abortion and STIs were too important ‘just to let young people get on with them’. She said, “Young people live in a very sexualised society which is very pressured and they need advice and help to make sense of it. When sexual and relationship education is given, young people are less likely to become sexual at a younger age.”
I most certainly agree with you that it is a good idea to not only teach kids about sex but also what a healthy, monogamous relationship is like. With the wide availability of materials on sex in the net and from varies media nowadays, it might be wiser to expose younger people to the issue in a ‘control’ way which we want them to learn; the values and morals. To hide it or not talk about it will make them even more curious and to explore other channels.
Man, I do not want to think of 100 year olds having sex…I think 16 year olds, yes, sure. But 11? Man they are still little kids at that age!
My son asked me why I had no condoms in my beside drawer… actually, going back one step, he asked me why my new husband and I didn’t have new children yet. When I asked why, he replied, “because I couldn’t find any condoms in your bedside drawer.”
That’s what I get for being open about safe sex. He knows what it is, and I trust that when the time comes it will be second nature for him to use one.
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i think the solution to teen pregnancies is teaching our children the importance and consequences of sex at a very early age.
teaching 11 yr olds how to put condoms would send the message that teen sex is ok as long as you use contraceptives.
some may call me corny but i do believe in the sanctity of sex.
The thought of my 11-yr old learning how to use a condom makes me both sick and sad. He’s had “family living” class in 5th grade, and that was fine with me. But learning how to put on a condom? Hell no.
WOW really! I think that if there was far more education regarding relationships then maybe the kids will have more of an understanding that will help to put the future divorce rate into reverse.
Teaching kids as young as eleven how to put on a condom is riduculous and misses the point totally.
Why don’t they put the cash into helping kids with how to build relationships that work and how to communicate effectivly with each other.
They have not got a clue!
Sorry for the rant!
Steve
I think it`s bad idea. Friendship, not sex in 11.
No it should not.His age should be minimum 16 to know this.
Oh my, eleven years old? My goodness. I don’t kno what to say!
Btw, you’re featured on my page. 121 clicks from your card. Thanks
Educate them? Certainly. But at the age of 11 I don’t feel they need to know how to put a condom on.
OMG that’s so young, you mean they know about it since this age?
I think its way too young for them.
Prepubescent kids need opportunities for learning social skills, not sexual skills.I think 11 year olds are tooooo young to have sex. It makes me wonder if the 11 year olds who are venturing into sexual activity have been introduced to it by older kids, or have been molested by adults and have a heightened interest in sex. Of course, unmonitored TV watching doesn’t help any either. Of course this is the UK, and my reference point is the US, but I think our culture has gone way past the point of making sex “taboo” to the other extreme of making sex too available. I agree with the comment about believing in the sanctity of sex. I do think it is important to educate our older teens about contraception and safe sex.
I can’t even imagine and I have 2 sons. That thought makes me sick to my stomach. I’m not super uptight about sex or talking about it but 11???? NO
There are both positive and negative effects on teaching them about this.
Hmmm..but i think 11 year is to young for all these..
ahhh too young. they should be educated when they can understand you (age 2 - start using proper names of body parts and progress with knowledge/information as they age).
if you’re going to teach them how to use a condom, might as well teach them how to do drugs, smoke, gamble, steal and shoot people.
.02
11 is just too young. I’d say 14 at the earliest, and 15 would be a comfortable age.
And that is coming from a guy with a fairly liberal raising
When I was 11, which was thirty years ago, the answer would be NO.
Now, I’m not so sure… kids today are exposed to so many things way earlier than we were.
I think 13 is too late to have the sex talk, so can we compromise at 12?
This is unreal, I don’t believe that you could actually teach a child these things! The child shouldn’t even know about sex, then to know about condoms.
Ahhh too young. they should be educated when they can understand you.Prepubescent kids need opportunities for learning social skills, not sexual skills.I think 11 year olds are tooooo young to have sex. It makes me wonder if the 11 year olds who are venturing into sexual activity have been introduced to it by older kids, or have been molested by adults and have a heightened interest in sex. Of course, unmonitored TV watching doesn?t help any either.But The child shouldn?t even know about sex, then to know about condoms.
Todays sad reality pitches sex at kids in tv, Internet, magazines….every where. Teens respond to this social pressure by imitating, just look at Much Music!.
My eldest son is a nice and polite teen who is not yet sexually active. (I know because he is home schooled and still passes his time around the house and his younger brother) and he always knew about condoms and std’s. I don’t think his education infringed on his personality or well being. I was worried about serious conditions like herpes, hepatitis and aids. How easy it is to “forget” to protect yourself and then spend the rest of your life regretting.
Information and knowledge is power. The way we present the information to our children is the key here. Finally, I consider sexuality a part of my kids life like their physical health, psychological development and general health.
I am very open with my kids and did not quite see the urgency in teaching them about sex at 11. They are now 13 and 14 and “trouble begins”! They do grow so much faster these days!
French wedding photographer
It’s not a good idea. I think it’s better to teach them the right thing to do and when is the right time to use a condom, when they reach 18.
Hmmm, I have a son and if someday he ll ask me about it I ll tell him a true and really want that this will not happened in his 11 year. I woundered in 16
really informative post.’If sex and relationships education is made a statutory subject, then parents would have no say on what is taught’ i am completely agree with your opinions.you discussed it so easily.thanks for that.waiting for your next post like this.
Thanks for sharing..
This is a hard question in our culture… When is the age of accountability?
Even from a Jewish/Muslim/Christian, a child is considered accountable at age 12.
The average age for a person to marry , throughout the ages was and still is 12 years old. Although, this is due to the fact, that most girls start menstruation, and when puberty begins.
Even though, history, (and in many parts of the world), cultures consider these things to be valid and right.
While we in American do not allow a 12 year old to marry.
I do not agree, that parents shouldn’t have a say so, about what their children are being taught. The US has a constitutionally based government that should and has duty to protect individual human rights and sovereignty of every person and family.
In the US a person has the right to practice any religion as long as it does not violate the rights of another human being.
What this type of teaching advocates to an adult, is that, it’s okay and expected to teach minors about sex..?
What is being implied, is that, because some 11 year olds have had sex, then all 11 year olds will have sex. So, it justifies, that all 11 year olds should be taught about sex.
Never should an institution replace the parent in this regard. Parenting, is an individual and personal journey, that is and should be, very private. ‘If’ anything should be shared, it would be, at the parents free-willed choice to do so.
Can I invite all the neighbourhood children (11 and up) in my house and teach them about sex?
No. I would go to jail.
So, why would we advocate and allow any form of government institution to usurp this right from the parent???
Just because it’s a public or private institution doesn’t make it right. If parents allow such laws to be passed, who is the parent then?
Is family sacred, is marriage sacred?
Is sex sacred?
If we demean sex as activity governed by the state it is no longer sacred.
If children have sex it’s because first, they are supervised and neglected by their parent(s). Second, It’s because another child or adult introduced them and or they were molested.
“If sex and relationships education is made a statutory subject, then parents would have no say on what is taught”
What’s missing in America? Discipline and Standards.
I have a daughter who just turned 14 years old, she hasn’t ever had sex. She was introduced to the subject of ’safe sex’ by her grandmother when she started menstruation.
This is a family issue.
Just because, there are a few bad and neglectful parents, it doesn’t justify, taking the sovereignty of the ‘parental unit’ away from the divinely sanctified institution of family.
Maybe you do not believe in a God, Goddess or practice any form of religion, but many people do. Institutions of ‘MAN’ do not have the right to usurp the institutions of ‘Faith’.
I for one have ‘Faith’ in the Institution of Marriage and Family and the sovereignty of every human being and their free-moral agency to make their own free-willed choice.
I have faith in my daughter to make right decision because her ‘FAMILY’ has taken the time to ensure that she be taught the skills necessary to make wise and educated decisions.
The most important issue facing children is not the advocacy of sex through the guise of ’safe sex’ dry-shod justifications but a building up of moral character. Rather if education be taught by the institution and government, it should instill the strength to say, ‘NO’; the strength and support to make a stand against peer pressure; to respect them self, their bodies and abstain.
If a parent applies these things by example, then most healthy minded children will follow what they see, rather than what they hear.
Besides, no other adult(Man or Woman), better never-ever, even discuss such matters with my daughter before they pass it by or through me.
Otherwise, their face will have an abrupt meeting with my fist.
-Michael McClurg
AMENDMENT
I meant they are ‘…’UN’-supervised and neglected by their parent(s)’
What made me a great asset when I worked in politics was the fact that I could honestly empathize with an opposing view, which gave me the sincerity that I was on their side.
However, when it comes to this issue- I can’t help but chuckle and call people who oppose this either “idiots” or “ignorant of the facts”. Pretending in your mind an 11 year old isn’t fooling around is only fooling yourself. Go listen in on their phone conversations, read their email, easedrop at their door when friends are over. In other words- be a parent. And you will know. Being a right wing conservative and ignoring the issue will not change the facts of what is going on.
I lost my virginity at eleven to a seventeen year old girl. I was lucky on several counts, but the two main ones- 1) That I didn’t get her pregnant, 2) She didn’t have an STD. That was circa 1980, just before aids. And by the time I was 14 and in 8th grade, I’d had sex with at least four girls, and the girls I knew had sex with at least two or three other boys.
Now, insert a few years where an STD not only means embarrassment in front of the small-town family doctor, but instead can mean DEATH, and you are a moron if you don’t take precautions to prevent it. And I use moron because what you really are I won’t say publicly.
My mother was a junior high teacher and in the SMALL, and I mean VERY small town she taught in, there was at one point 6 girls in elementary school that were pregnant. That is first through sixth grade.
So there might be a LITTLE debate on whether or not the schools should teach such things as saving lives. Personally, I think it should be taught in the home. But the homes are failing, miserably. Look at all these people here who responded, who close their eyes and put their children at risk. Risk of DEATH. Dead. Gone. The end. Six feet under.
But I don’t see how there can be any debate whatsoever that an 11 year old needs to be taught safe sex. Would you not teach them to not point a loaded gun at someone?
Seriously, people should be 16 to learn how to use a condom? Most people lose their virginity before 16. I lost it at 14, and new what a condom was and how to use it at 12. I think 13 should be the age since most kids already went through puberty and are going to start have urges.
I am 11 and i really don’t care about condoms or anything like that…and to all those people who said comments like “11 is too young” and stuff like that, 1 year olds are very smart and can make good choices(or at least i can, because that was what i learned growing to this point). Besides, 11 is a good age to teach something like that to us because we could remember it as long as it’s taught to us while our minds are open!!
I learnt how to put a condom on when I was eleven. I knew what sex was when I was six. Neither of those things made me have sex when I was a child.
Being informed helps children make informed decisions. You can’t change a person’s actions, but you can make sure they’re moderated by having access to the correct information.
I’ve heard, from children, some of the misinformation they get from their peers and I’d rather they learn about sex and learn how a condom works than take risks just because they weren’t taught it in a sex education class.
by 18?!?!?!?!?!? Are you CRAZY? you can’t wait until a child is 18 to have the sex talk! they’ll be doing it! and it is important to educate kids about sex by 11, just don’t be showing/teaching them how to put on a condom. what? are you going to also show girls how to put on a diaphram at 11? i didn’t think so.