A TV show featuring schoolchildren writing a pornography film script as part of a sex education class has been broadcast on Channel 4.
“Sex in Class” saw 13 teenagers aged 15 and 16 at a school in Lancashire taking part in lessons taught by former Miss Belgium Goedele Liekens.
When the show was announced last year, it faced criticism from a family campaigner who said parents are best placed to talk to their children about sexual issues.
Sexually explicit
Liekens is campaigning for the introduction of a sex education GCSE, which would include teaching not just on STIs and pregnancy, but also pornography.
The programme, which aired on Thursday night, covered activities including rewriting a scene for a pornography film, and making art ‘inspired’ by female genitalia.
Liekens told the Radio Times that parents should be talking about sex with their children as soon as they can talk.
She said: “I have two teenage daughters and when they were younger we’d watch Bob the Builder and I’d say, ‘How do you think Bob feels about Wendy? What would they do if they were in love?'”
Parents
Last year, Antonia Tully, national coordinator for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children’s Safe at School campaign, criticised the idea of a GCSE on sex education.
Tully also said: “We don’t need lessons to titillate teenagers. This is not the best approach to ensuring children are protected.
“Parents are the best people to talk to children about these intimate details. Sex isn’t an academic subject, it is a personal matter”, she added.
Currently, local authority-run secondary schools must offer sex and relationships education, but free schools, academies and all primary schools are not required to do so.