If you start teaching them about sex when they are engaging in sexual activities you’re clearly to late.
Kids aged 10 will understand what sex but haven’t yet participated in it. In that sense it’s the perfect age to start education. Kids that know what sex is will be much likely to be able to set their own boundaries.
The headline about teaching 10-year-olds how to use Grindr is clearly someone making clickbait and not giving a sh*t about representing the actuality.
They also need to know about the changes their body is going to go through in puberty, the emotions and urges they will develop and how to healthily deal with them, basic hygiene and use of deodorant, what sexual assault is and how to report it since many kids are sexually abused.
This is just not true. Kids absolutely need accurate sex education BEFORE they are ready to engage in any sexual activity. It's important for kids to have accurate names for body parts and sex itself for all sorts of reasons. Comprehensive sex ed results in REDUCED rates of sexual activity.
Bottom line: you don't wait until kids might be sexually active to provide sex ed. You provide it long before that point and, in doing so, can actually DELAY the start of sexual activity.
Women hit puberty a lot sooner than men. My parents didn't tell me anything about periods or puberty because they were religious and didn't want to talk about it. Luckily, my school gave me sex ed the year of my first period while I was still in elementary school at age 10, so I wasn't freaked out when I had my period and knew I needed a pad. Girls have been getting their periods even more early than that nowadays. Sex ed isn't about just having sex or what sex is, it's about your body and how it is developing. Then once I hit high school I was given more in depth sex ed about how to be safe, types of birth control, the menstrual cycle (which was already covered in elementary school but a good refresher), and other health topics like mental health.
I agree about teaching the ins and outs of each anatomy - like periods for girls and erections for boys. Could also teach them about pleasure - what are orgasms and how it works in the body.
But i don't think its the right age to teach how to give each other orgasms
I think young children, probably 8-10, should be told the full ins and outs of how sex works mechanically. This will help them learn to identify what someone is doing to them if they're being abused, and why they're doing it.
Even if kids know everything about sex, they don't really have sex drives yet and aren't really going to chase after that. I think the benefits far outweigh the risks since.
I have a child this age. It's not that you're expecting them to engage in sexual activities but they ABSOLUTELY have quite detailed questions and a bit of information at this age, both information gathered from parents and observation as well as the less-than-accurate information they have obtained via the rumor mill. Yes, there's also the internet, but despite access to the internet, I'm finding that the rumor mill to still be the primary place where this info is spread.
In addition, 10 is about the age when puberty starts on average (for girls it is often even a bit earlier), so it's important accurate information is provided before that happens. There are 10 year old girls who often appear quite older and those girls are likely going to get attention that they may be be prepared for. It's important that they KNOW about sexual activity in order to know that it's OK and appropriate to say NO. Sometimes information is what STOPS kids from engaging in sexual activity that they are not prepared for. It's the kids who don't have that information, who may not even understand what is happening, that are more likely to engage in sexual activity.
Bottom line is accurate and early sex ed is really important. More than ever, kids need ACCURATE information about sex and their bodies.
My guy, I found my old man's porn stash in '99 at the ripe old age of 7. He fucking sucked at keeping it hidden. Better that I would have learned sex ed from a more reputable source than Hustler Magazine. Because I knew the words "cock" and "shaft" and "twat" and "tits" before I ever knew penis, vagina, and breasts. And I promise you there are millions of stories like mine where young boys found pornography entirely too early and turned out cis/straight. Just like me.
You know what porn never teaches you? That there are potential negative outcomes to sex. Like unwanted encounters, predators, unwanted pregnancy, and disease. It never teaches you how to protect yourself. It never teaches you how to properly put on a condom. It never teaches you about birth control and it's side effects. It never teaches you how to identify problems in your reproductive system.
Also, plenty of parents are diametrically opposed to teaching kids sex ed, but peruse YouTube Kids for a few minutes and see what kind of creepy shit is being served to them. Kids being served softcore porn on YouTube has been an issue for YEARS. My five year old nephew gets some weird ass Godzilla tits (sans nipples) in thumbnails on YouTube in the Kids app more frequently than you would ever believe. He doesn't understand what it is. But it grabs his attention and gets his click until an adult in the room notices. If you think they won't find it themselves or it won't get served to them, you're dead wrong.
So why not teach them about these things in a controlled environment with a purely educational context?
I remember having my first sex ed class at 10 years old, the last year of primary school before moving to middle school. There was more in depth sex ed in middle school before moving to high school. Getting that knowledge about your body BEFORE moving into a more challenging social situation is key.
I was in 6th grade in catholic school when I had my first sex-ed classes. I has basically just about turned 11 when I learned about stuff like what a penis is, what a vagina is, we saw videos about births, we learned about stds, and how contraceptives are usually effective but not perfect.
Post aside, there should be different degrees of education for different ages. At 10, a child should know enough to seek help in case of abuse... At puberty, enough to alleviate any anxiety about the changes they're going through. Mid teenage years, how to be safe, etc
that is exactly what happens. It's not like they start in with calculus in kindergarten in math class, they don't give 5 year olds James Joyce's Ulysses, and they don't make you run a marathon in your first phys Ed class.
They don't go into every detail at an early age. At that age, it's more about sexual preference. It's less about teaching reproduction, and more about saying, "Yes, Timmy, it's okay you have a crush on Tommy; you're still loved." And that's pretty much it.
You do realize that kids start puberty LONG before they're 14-15, right? Most girls are actually done with puberty at that point, and boys are close with just some height and muscle mass gains after that point.