Children aged 13 asked about sexual history

Study of teenagers funded by Welsh government could normalise child abuse, says parents’ group

‘It’s deeply concerning that Labour is obsessing over students’ private lives and not focusing on getting standards up’

‘Eleven-yearolds do not “have sex”, they are raped. This has the potential to normalise serious child protection issues’

CHILDREN as young as 13 are being asked when they first had sex in a survey funded by the Welsh Government, raising fears that child abuse is being “normalised”.

All mainstream secondary schools in Wales can participate in the student health and wellbeing survey, run by the School Health Research Network every two years.

The census of pupils aged 13 to 18 covers sex and relationships, smoking, alcohol, drugs, family life, nutrition, sport and gambling.

One section for pupils in Year 11 to Year 13 – and optional to those in Year 9 and 10, who are aged 13 to 15 – asks “how old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time” with answers ranging from “11 years old or younger”, through each year to 18.

The survey, which took place again last autumn, asks them if they used emergency contraception the last time they had sex, whether they used a condom and whether birth control pills were used.

Another question asks: “Have you ever sent someone a sexually explicit image of yourself?”

The survey has prompted warnings from parents that safeguarding has “barely” been considered.

Safe Schools Alliance UK, a parents’ campaign group, said that while collecting data was “laudable”, the survey had got it “horribly wrong” and they are “shocked at this being done in the name of health”.

“We are alarmed that ‘11 years or younger’ is one of the multi-choice answers given for questions such as “at what age did you first get drunk/use cannabis/have sexual intercourse,” said Tanya Carter from the group.

“Eleven-year-olds do not ‘ have sex’, they are raped.

“This has the potential to normalise serious child protection issues. A free text box would be better.

“Inclusion seems to have been treated as an add-on and safeguarding barely considered at all.”

In January the Scottish Government also faced calls to scrap a similar health and wellbeing census which asked 14-year-olds about anal sex.

Ms Carter said: “As with the Scottish survey, no consideration appears to be given to how these questions would be received by abused children.”

Welsh children are also asked how old they were when they first smoked “more than a puff ”, used cannabis or got drunk. If pupils say they smoke, they are asked where they buy their cigarettes, such as “a street market or an ice cream van”.

They also asked if they have been offered “weed, marijuana, dope, pot, hash, grass, bud, skunk, spliff/joints”, mephedrone or nitrous oxide, and whether they “think it is OK for someone your age to try taking cannabis to see what it’s like”.

The School Health Research Network Survey has received £1.1 million from Mark Drakeford’s Labour government since 2019, an investigation by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, shared with The Telegraph, found.

Laura Anne Jones, Wales’s shadow minister for education, said: “It’s deeply concerning that the Labour Government is obsessing over the details of our students’ private lives and not focusing on getting standards up.”

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The [survey] provides high-quality data on the health and wellbeing of young people aged 11–16 in Wales.”