Stop tickling! How to teach children about consent

PARENTS should stop tickling their child when asked to teach them about consent, MPs were told yesterday.

In a Commons debate on abuse in schools, the SNP’s Alison Thewliss said lessons about consent should begin early to teach children that they should be listened to when they say ‘no’.

‘We can do it with something as simple as tickling,’ she said. ‘If you’re tickling a child and they say stop, you stop. That’s teach- ing consent to very young children - they understand that, they know that.

‘If you’re building that kind of resilience from that young age they know if you want somebody to stop, you tell them.’

MPs also called for age restrictions on smartphones and tablets. Former culture secretary Maria Miller blamed technology for a rise in sex attacks and accused the Government and schools of failing in their duty of care to protect children.

She added that online companies should face a levy to help tackle extreme porn which is ‘fuelling’ a prolific increase in childon-child sexual harassment in classrooms.

She said she had spoken to one mother whose six year-old was raped by a schoolmate, while another said his 12-year- old daughter had friends who sexted boys.

‘They have no idea they are experiencing sexual abuse if their first frame of reference is extreme porn,’ said Miss Miller. ‘ We’ve given our children access to the world through that technology but without the rules and regulations they see in every other aspect of their daily life.’

Labour MP Chris Elmore said abuse in schools has a huge effect on mental health.

‘It leaves lasting scars on girls, and on some boys, when they move into the workplace,’ he said. ‘And for those who have committed those offences, they think it’s then acceptable to carry on doing that.’