Consider the following statistics?
*Children between ages 12 and 17 are the largest consumers of internet pornography
*90% of children between ages 11 and 17 who have internet access have accidentally being exposed to pornography on the web
*Every year, millions of teenage girls, 11% those aged 15-19 becomes pregnant representing 20% of those who have sexual intercourse.
*Of teenage pregnancies 31% end in abortions, 14% ends in miscarriage and 55% in birth.
By the time they leave secondary school, more than half of today’s teenagers would have had one sexual experience or the other. Your little angel may be among them. I can hear a thousand ‘God forbid’. Hmmmm. that’s not the soultion however.
First, you should not judge today’s teenagers by yesterday’s standard. This is 21st century you know. The cultural environment has changed and that is why parents should not shy away from talking about sex to their children.
Helping teenagers deal with experiences you didn’t have yourself may not come easy, but it is important all the same.
Sex education, sometimes called sexuality education or sex & relationship education is the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex. Sex education is about developing Young people’s skills so they can make informed choices about their behaviours and feel competent and confidence about acting on these choices.
Study after study shows that teenagers want more information about sex than they are getting. Children believe so much in their parents and so they expect much from them. When asked if they actually talk to their parents about sex only about one in ten teenagers will say YES. The reason is that most parents avoid such discussion.
Why do parents avoid it?
*Some parents believe talking to young people about sex will lead to premature sexual activities; that their children will interpret their willingness to talk as license to become sexually active. Both beliefs are false.
Learning about government did not transform your child into political activist, so why should learning about sex make them promiscuous? Lack of sex education has increased teenage pregnancies according to research.
Young people gets a lot of information about sex from different sources including peers. Some information may be accurate, some may be false, some may even be misleading. But when parents take up the task to talk to their children then you will get your child belief and correct any misinformation.
Most parents feel uneasy talking about sex with adolescent children. They feel its immoral and ungodly. Parents must know that sex education is part of the training to be giving to their child. Prov 22:6.
The main reason most parents feel awkward about discussing sex is that they don’t know what to say or how to begin. We need to know the roles of parents and how parents can guide teenagers towards healthy sexual behaviours. We shall continue in part 2.
**Some statistics and commentaries in the article were selected from relevant books,health reports and websites.
Shalom!
Wunmi Oyesanya
