Boys get sex ed from porn
London, December 21 (ANI)
Boys are getting most of their sex education from pornography, MPs have revealed.
The move was prompted by concerns over the impact of easy-to-access pornography on children's lives.
According to the MPs, sex and relationship education should be made compulsory and should also include "relationship counselling", the cross-party inquiry into unplanned pregnancies.
They also said that teaching boys and girls about sex and relationships in mixed classes could help boys form "a more rounded view of what is involved in a sexual relationship as opposed to just a sexual encounter".
The report was published as David Cameron announced plans for parents to be automatically prompted to tailor their internet filters when switching on new computers if they declare there are children in the house.
The Prime Minister of Britain vowed to act against a "silent attack on innocence" and shield children from the "worries and complexities of adulthood."
The inquiry by Amber Rudd, the Parliamentary aide to Chancellor George Osborne, Liberal Democrat Lorely Burt and Labour's Sandra Osborne found the impact of pornography on young men's views of sex was likely to make it more difficult for girls, who are typically seen as responsible for contraception, to insist on using condoms.
They called for a programme of combined sex education to be piloted and for "more thought to be given to the pervasiveness of pornography and its use amongst young people".
"The relative ease of access to pornography has also tended to shape and distort people's image of themselves and their bodies and in particular the primacy of relationships," the Telegraph quoted the report as saying.
"It would also appear that young men often receive the majority of their sex 'education' from pornography.
"Clearly pornography does not involve advice on contraception and does not tend to promote the use of condoms.
"Consequently if this is the main source of 'education' from which young males learn about sex, it is likely to make it harder for young girls to insist that condoms be used.
"Whilst there is value in adopting a single-sex approach to delivering SRE (sex and relationship education), in light of the stereotypically 'male' view of sex which is promoted through, and dominant in, popular culture and pornography, there could equally be a case for a combined sex education programme.
"The aim of this would be to provide a context where mutual learning and respect between the two sexes can be encouraged thereby forming a more rounded view of what is involved in a sexual relationship as opposed to just a sexual encounter," the report added.
The report warned that girls who do not become pregnant are also penalised by the system "creating a perverse incentive to become pregnant in order to gain social housing".
It also called for "some high profile prosecutions for underage sex" to help reduce sexual abuse among young girls.