Add porn and violence to sex ed — ERO

Agency says schools far behind given vast range of material now accessible to teens

The Education Review Office says high schools should be teaching about pornography and sexual violence so teenagers learn what’s healthy and what’s not.

The agency, in its first review of sexuality education in schools since 2007, says schools have not kept up with an explosion of access to pornography and other sexual content on smartphones and social media.

“To meet the needs of young people in our current context, sexuality education needs to be more comprehensive and the variability across schools needs to be reduced,” it says.

“This evaluation found some schools [did not] meet minimum standards of effectiveness, and many more [only just met] these standards.

“Given the complexity of the issues involved, and the impact sexuality issues have on young people’s wellbeing, this . . . is not good enough.”

The report says upcoming findings from The Light Project, founded by Auckland sexual health workers Nikki Denholm and Jo Robertson, show that many Kiwi teens are learning about sex through pornography.

But their research shows that most porn depicts violence against women (94 per cent), physical aggression (88 per cent), spanking (75 per cent) and verbal abuse (49 per cent).

“[Porn] rarely depicts meaningful consent, and often includes coercion and/or violence, particularly towards girls and women,” ERO says.

“It is therefore of some concern that ERO found pornography was one of the least well covered aspects of sexuality education”.

Sexuality education is one of seven “key learning areas” in the health and physical education curriculum, which is compulsory for every year from Years 1 to 10.

Primary schools start by learning about healthy relationships between friends, and by high-school level students should be learning about sexual relationships.

ERO says the topic should include, across all years: friendship skills; communication skills; building selfesteem; relationships; gender stereotypes;

[Porn] rarely depicts meaningful consent. Education Review Office

gender and sexuality diversity; social norms and pressures; anatomy, physiology and pubertal change; conception and contraception; and consent and coercion.

In high schools it should also include: sexually transmitted infections; sexting, pornography; alcohol and drugs as they relate to sex; and sexual violence.

However, ERO found that only a third of primary schools are teaching about gender and sexuality diversity and only half are teaching about gender stereotypes. Fewer than half of secondary schools were covering porn and sexual violence.

The agency recommends highschool students should get 12 to 15 hours of sexuality education in both Years 9 and 10, but found that “only a few schools met this benchmark”.

It says school boards should also provide “explicit and proactive” support for sexually and gender-diverse students rather than waiting for a problem to arise.