A council-run sex education website aimed at teenagers has been taken offline following complaints the content was “dangerous and degrading”.
Respect Yourself was set up by Warwickshire County Council to be used by teenagers, parents and teachers, and includes graphic descriptions of different sexual behaviours.
But following complaints, the council has pulled it down while it conducts a review of the content.
‘Sextionary’
The website included a 47-page “sextionary” – a glossary of explicit sexual vocabulary.
It also condoned promiscuity, with one section telling girls about the best way to sleep with strangers.
It says: “If you are on a girls’ holiday and make the decision to sleep with someone you’ve just met – for safety’s sake, take them back to your place, where you know your friends are only in the next room”.
‘Profoundly irresponsible’
The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert criticised the website, saying: “Respect seems to be the last thing on the minds of the people responsible for this appalling material.
“Young people deserve to be treated with dignity, not spoken down to as if they have no self-control or moral compass.
“Compiling an A-to-Z that includes some of the most dangerous and degrading sexual practices imaginable and presenting them all to young people as equally valid and healthy is profoundly irresponsible.”
Sexualisation of children
It comes just weeks after the same council was criticised for a Relationships Education resource which told children as young as six about masturbation.
In a section entitled ‘Touching Myself’, All About Me suggested that masturbating in the bath, shower or bed would be most appropriate for children.
Matthew Seymour, who has two sons at a Warwickshire primary school which used the resource, said: “This sexualisation of our children is just totally inappropriate.”