One in four parents believe children exposed to inappropriate sex ed

Many British parents are concerned about the use of inappropriate sex education material, an important poll has revealed.

In the UK’s largest annual survey of parental attitudes, Parentkind sought the views of parents on a whole range of issues, including Relationships and Sex Education and gender-confused children in school.

On behalf of the national charity, YouGov conducted fieldwork amongst 5,866 parents in the UK who have at least one child aged 4 to 18 in school.

Transparency

According to the poll, seven out of ten parents (71 per cent) believe it is “important that schools consult with parents in advance about the content of RSE lessons”.

However, 33 per cent say they “have not always been informed in advance about the content of RSE lessons” and nearly a quarter of parents (23 per cent) “say their child has been exposed to inappropriate content”.

Parentkind reported: “A majority (56%) of parents support the right to withdraw their child from some or all RSE lessons.”

The charity’s Chief Executive, Jason Elsom, said: “Our parent survey shows there is a long way to go on consulting with parents and we need to stop situations where so many parents are shocked and upset when they learn what their children are being told in the classroom.”

Gender ideology

The survey also found that nine in ten parents “think schools should inform them if their child has changed gender at school as long as there are no safety concerns”.

More parents believe that schools “should teach there are two biological sexes only” (48 per cent) than hold to the view that children should learn “that people have different perceptions of sex and gender” (45 per cent).

A majority of parents (55 per cent) say that boys who identify as girls “should not be allowed to use the girls’ toilets in schools”, only 23 per cent of parents were in favour of such a policy.

Government guidelines

In July, the Department for Education (DfE) published long-awaited guidance on Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) for schools in England.

Guarantees over sex education resource transparency were welcomed by The Christian Institute. The existing legal requirement that schools must consult parents when developing or changing their policy on RSE remains in place.

But the CI questioned the wisdom of removing proposals from the draft guidance which protected under-9s from sex education, and that kept under-13s from hearing about explicit sexual acts. It also expressed concern that the guidance fails to ensure schools teach about the importance of marriage for family life and the bringing up of children, despite this being a legal requirement.

Safeguarding guidance was also published by the DfE in July. The Institute described its recognition of the risks associated with ‘social transitioning’ as “a massive step in the right direction”. Government guidance on ‘Gender Questioning Children’ is expected to be published later this year.