The WHO Guidelines on Sex-ed for Infants Spark Outrage

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) is under pressure to withdraw guidance for schools recommending that toddlers “ask questions about sexuality” and “explore gender identities”.

The guidance says that “sexuality education starts from birth” and is described as a “framework for policymakers, educational and health authorities and specialists”.

Its advice on how to “talk about sexual matters” with young children was aimed at policymakers across Europe and was translated into several European languages and promoted at national and international events, according to the WHO.

The document was also consulted by Welsh ministers who last year rolled out a mandatory sexual education syllabus to schools in Wales, and has led to a backlash from the Government, MPs and activists.

It recommends that children under the age of four should be told they have “the right to ask questions about sexuality” and “the right to explore gender identities”.

The WHO guidance also says that children aged four and under should be taught about “enjoyment and pleasure when touching one’s own body, early childhood masturbation”.

These topics are described as the “minimal standards that need to be covered by sexuality education”.

A government spokesperson said: “The UK Government does not recognize this WHO guidance and we don’t agree with its recommendations. We have not distributed or promoted it to schools.

“We offer our own guidance to help schools to teach children and young people about relationships and health.”

However, the WHO guidance, first published in 2010, was cited in a 2017 report commissioned by Welsh ministers entitled “Informing the Future of the Sex and Relationships Curriculum in Wales”.

Legally enforceable in Wales

The report was commissioned to “inform the development of the future Sex and Relationships (SRE) curriculum”, which became legally enforceable in Welsh schools last year, although it did not adopt all of the recommendations in the report conducted by Cardiff University.

Laura Anne Jones MS, shadow minister for education in Wales, said the WHO “needs to rescind the advice immediately”.

Ms. Jones also called for the Welsh government to “distance themselves” from the “frankly disturbing” WHO guidance.

She added: “We must stop this pushing of harmful gender ideology into sex education in Wales and the UK, with immediate effect. The WHO needs to rescind the advice immediately.”

A Welsh government spokesperson said it did not “endorse” the WHO guidance, adding: “What is taught in schools is set out clearly in the RSE Code. The code gives very clear directions to schools so that children only learn about things that are appropriate for their age and development.

“At a younger age, children will be taught about treating each other with kindness and empathy.”

‘Premature sexualization’

However, the laws have been condemned by MPs, parents’ organizations and activist groups concerned about the premature sexualization of children in Welsh schools.

Tanya Carter, a spokeswoman for Safe Schools Alliance, who campaigns for child safety, has demanded an “urgent inquiry” into whether there is a link between “RSE curriculum in this country” and sexual education guidance issued by UN organizations such as the WHO and UNESCO.

“An urgent inquiry is needed into how this ideology… has come to influence so much public thinking,” Ms. Carter added.

A WHO spokesman told The Telegraph the organization stands by its guidance and it remains accessible.

The spokesman added: “Our guidelines reflect established psychological facts about children’s understanding of their bodies and psychosocial development based on decades of research.”

The document asserts that children embark on sexual education from birth.

It reads: “From birth, babies learn the value and pleasure of bodily contact, warmth and intimacy. Soon after that, they learn what is ‘clean’ and what is ‘dirty’.”

It then goes on to conclude: “In other words, they are engaging in sexuality education.”

The WHO should know better

A spokeswoman from Safe Schools Alliance UK said this approach “re-conceptualizes children’s entire existence, and all their relationships, as somehow connected to their sexuality and sexual behaviors”.

John Hayes, MP, said: “The WHO should know better than to toy with the sensitivities of children and the concerns of parents in this way.

“Childhood is a time of innocence; for imagining, fairy tales, and play and joy. A lot of these people have a very warped understanding of the character of childhood and it’s actually much simpler than they claim in their guidance.”

The WHO document presents three models of sexual education – “Types” one, two and three – which range from an “abstinence-only” approach to encouraging children to pursue “sexual growth and development”.

It advocates the most liberal approach, which it refers to as “Type 3” or “holistic sexuality education," as a source of “unbiased” and “scientifically correct” information on “all aspects of sexuality”.

However, it depicts the most conservative model, which it refers to as an “abstinence-only” approach, as having been proven to have “no positive effects on sexual behavior” or the “risk of teenage pregnancy”.

Source: Telegraph

*The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author.*  Follow Us  
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