School children are being encouraged to watch a series of “graphic” videos depicting casual sex, under a new NHS scheme to promote condom use.
The NHS uploaded the interactive clips to the video sharing website, YouTube.
But the clips are likely to heighten concerns about the increasingly explicit nature of youngsters’ sex education.
Slammed
The contentious clips, which are expected to be used by teachers, show a young woman having casual sex with a young man in a variety of positions while he films the encounters with a hand held camera.
Critics have accused the NHS of glamorising casual sex and warned that the videos make no reference to abstinence being the “right option”.
Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said: “It is grossly irresponsible of the NHS to present a graphic portrayal of unbridled lust in which a young woman is depicted as no more than a sex object and then to tell young men that they have made the right ‘choices’ simply because they have used a condom.”
And Vivienne Pattisson, director of Mediawatch, expressed concern that there were no effective controls to prevent children from viewing the explicit images.
Pornographers
Press reports indicate that Government officials are unable to watch the controversial clips because they are blocked by their pornography filters.
The style of filming used for the clips is similar to that utilised by amateur pornographers. The first clip depicts a number of young men preparing for a party and they have the option to buy condoms.
Another clip shows a graphic sex scene where the male and female characters have sex against a door, and another shows the woman lying on the bed while the young man has sex with her.
Teenage
A final video shows the teenage boy being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection after failing to use a condom.
A spokesman for the NHS said that the videos deal with “grown-up” issues in a way that is accessible to the target age group.
In July a study by Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, warned that parents were “rarely” consulted about their children’s lessons involving sex education.
Parents
The study also found that some schools were failing to help children to ‘say no’ to sex, in their Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education lessons.
The study, which looked at 165 schools in England, also covered alcohol awareness education and said children should be taught about the illegality of underage drinking.
However, no such mention of the illegality of having sex under the age of consent was made in the report.
Explicit
In May it was revealed that angry mums had slammed a primary school’s plan to show pupils an explicit sex ed video, and warned that it could cause children to experiment sexually.
The video, a Channel 4 production called Living and Growing, shows a naked cartoon couple chasing each other around a bed and then having sex, while a voice-over gives a detailed description of the action.
Cliff Lane Primary School was planning to show the video to seven-year-old pupils, but outraged mums were left horrified after they saw the graphic DVD during a consultation.
Daughter
Kara Munday, whose five-year-old daughter attends the school, said: “We are genuinely concerned that sexual activity would take place because they would be aware of what these parts do and how to make it feel nice”.
She added: “Their innocence will be taken away at an early age.”