Comprehensive sexuality education needed to ensure safety, empower decision-making

According to a recent Touch Cyber Wellness survey, nine in 10 teenage boys in Singapore have been exposed to pornography. While the statistic is not surprising, it highlights the need for compulsory, age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in educational institutions.

CSE is based on life skills and provides youth with the knowledge and tools to make safe, autonomous and informed decisions on relationships and sexual and reproductive health.

The adoption of CSE, supported by international agencies such as the United Nations in providing education that is scientifically accurate, culturally relevant and gender-equitable, has improved health outcomes and reduced sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies.

Singapore is ostensibly still a conservative society, with many parents and teachers appealing to values-based rather than health-based sexuality assessments. Such messages, though well-intentioned, often espouse inaccurate — and sometimes stigmatising — information about these matters.

It is unrealistic to expect parents, religious leaders and community organisations to shoulder, in isolation, the burden of educating youth, especially when accurate knowledge of sex and sexuality is scant, owing to lack of training and the stigma surrounding these issues.

Moreover, some interest groups feel it is their duty to make health education a moral issue, soaking sex and sexuality with the rhetoric of shame.

In the past few years, CSE has been given a bad name here after sustaining attacks from groups who sincerely but mistakenly believe that it promotes sexual experimentation.

Teens may already be inclined to experiment because of what they see on pornographic websites. The Internet, while a source of free information, is rife with misinformation and sensationalism that teens may not be adequately equipped to navigate.

Parents, civic communities and the state have a part to play in ensuring that our youth grow up safe and well-informed. CSE provides a framework to ensure that information about sex and sexuality is conveyed safely and without judgment.

It allows youth to pass evidence-based information on to people around them. Teens must learn about both abstinence and contraception. They must get accurate, comprehensive information, based on public health principles, from people they can trust.

A major part of education is to reflect the societies we live in, so we must recognise that everyone has a right to be adequately educated to make responsible decisions on issues concerning their lives.