Sex education will benefit children

There is no session in secondary schools that promotes safe sex education. I am not sure why we still don’t have it.

The word sex itself is like a taboo in Malay­sia. We live in a multi-religious society and I am sure every religion believes that sex before marriage is immoral but I also believe that no religion stops people from gaining education in a good way, sex education included.

Parents don’t talk about sex with their children because they may feel awkward and uncomfortable to talk about it. By doing this, parents don’t realise the adverse effects.

I say this because when children are curious, they keep looking for answers until they are satisfied. They tend to be more interested in entertainment or that kind of issue. So what they do is, they will openly talk about sex with their friends, and they will go to the Internet.

Children are naïve. By checking the Internet they may fall for the porn websites. Some of them may end up as porn addicts and later, they want to try it themselves. That is why I am worried because I really don’t want to see a boy from Malaysia breaking the record of Alfie Patten, who became a father at the age of 13.

I suggest that schools should have a session teaching children about sex. I would like to stress here that it is not to encourage children to have safe sex but to teach them about sex for academic purpose and in a protected environment. It should be done in a protected environment because, unlike surfing the Internet, students will be taught academically and monitored.

There may be debate on when to start sex education or also how much information to give. I think we should not be worrying about this issue because Malaysia has many doctors, psychologists and others who are capable of doing research on it.

The importance of having sex education is to give early exposure to teenagers on how sexual relationship works and also to make them aware of the risks of having sex before marriage.

For example, unprotected sex may result in diseases like HIV, and may also result in unwanted pregnancy. They can also become victims of sex abuse, especially girls.

There are many things that can be taught during such sessions, such as reproduction and reproductive health. It will be good if the session is delivered in interesting ways so that students will not get bored easily. It is also important to make sure that teenagers are comfortable listening to it. I believe it will be even better to separate boys and girls because usually girls are shy in front of boys.

I also think it should also include some religious talk so that they will know their responsibilities better. I hope this could be implemented soon because I believe children need the information so that they can be protected.