Sex Education for 4 year olds !

I am all in favour of teaching children how to protect themselves, I remember my parents telling me how certain parts of my body were private and if anyone tried to touch them I was to immediately tell an adult. Will this sex education be just about the mechanics of sex or will it also include some reference to the emotional side?

Teaching a child to protect themselves can't be assumed to be done by the parents. Much (most) abuse of young children takes place within families, so schools do have a role in safeguarding.

It will include the emotional side sunseeker because it will focus mainly on relationship issues rather than the actual sex acts which everyone seems to be getting het up about. This is all to do with child protection. As educators, schools need to address this issue in order to make young children aware of the dangers. Of course we will do this in a sensitive age appropriate way.

X post suzied!

I agree suzied and Lillie - it is simply important as a child protection issue.

There should be no chance for 4 year old's to have access to unsuitable online or social media content. The technology is available (free) to block access to unsuitable sites and parents should be supervising every key stroke so there is no chance of the children seeing unsuitable sites or messages But if parents--cant be arsed dont employ the technology and use the internet as a babysitter then they have only themselves to blame.

Check out the Yorkshire Shepherdess, n&g. Her nine kids pick up the facts of life by observation of the sheep and other animals from a very young age, as country kids probably have done for ever. No problem.

But not everyone lives on a farm, not every child has loving or competent parents. So that's ok then those children who are abused have only themselves to blame.

Back to the real issue .... even seemingly innocent web sites harbour real dangers for young children. At some point a young child will come across something inappropriate on the web which has escaped even the most sophisticated of filtering processes. We need to educate the youngsters how not to react and how to tell adults what they have seen whether they have understood it or not. This type of education is at the top of every school's agenda, it is a costly investment but very worthwhile.

There was a quote in the Guardian article that really resonated with me.

“Parents are simply demanding that their children’s education reflects the 21st-century reality of their lives,”

We don't want to bury our heads on the sand and flap about saying the children ears must be covered because of their precious innocence.
I believe my generation are far more aware of how sharp and capable children are.

We do not want to be another generation remembered for the Jimmy Saviles, the priests, the care homes and the coaches.
Abuse is out there. There will always be evil people who know how to get what they want and they are almost always right under our noses. We can't change that.
But we can arm their potential victims.

Exactly Bibbity. Those evil people are highly internet savvy. It's the same when it comes to recruiting terrorists. They know how to get to and get at young minds.

Four is far too young to be introduced to topics appropriate to later stages of life and amounts to a form of child abuse in my view.

No wonder there is an explosion of childhood and teenage depression when adults intrude where they shouldn't.

Of course knowledge and candour are important but proper judgement should be exercised as to when and how topics are tackled.

Pets are the way forward.........not much about sex education that I had to deal with after we got the gerbils.........

I have no idea what's intended for the curriculum for four year olds, but I would imagine it's just the modern day equivalent of not accepting sweets from strangers. If a four year old comes across something on the internet which makes him/her uncomfortable or seems too good to be true, he/she needs to know what to do.

Even if parents use filters, they are not foolproof. In any case, I'm a little wary of parents who wrap their children in cotton wool throughout their childhood then expect them to be able to cope the moment they turn 18.

But it isn't at "later stages of life" that they will be faced with these evil websites, it's NOW from the very early age they sit at the computer at school or at home. You wouldn't believe how much we have to monitor and check everything that passes onto our computers at primary school. It's all out there, and the little ones need educating about how to cope with it. It is in its own way protecting them from its harmful effects, even though they can't be totally shielded from it.

Yes, daphnedill, it incorporates discussions and role plays about situations and relationships with a bent on modern technologies.

I don't believe four is too young to introduce children to the idea that they have a right not to feel uncomfortable, should they come across inappropriate websites.

Children have sexual feelings much younger than most adults realise. They are also fascinated by anatomical differences. However, I don't think the intention would be to start talking to four year olds about sex. It's almost certainly part of the 'keeping oneself safe' agenda, including from friends and family.

Thank you Lillie for confirming that. I have no direct experience of early years, but I do remember the kind of discussions my own children had in their first years at primary school.

I was 4 or 5 and in a public loo with my mum. She was bleeding and I must have asked if she was okay. She told me that mummies had a red eiderdown inside them to wrap babies up safe and warm. But as they didn't always have babies growing inside them all the time, then the red eiderdown would fall to pieces and come out, and then a new one would grow. I accepted this explanation of periods very happily until I was much older.

I started my periods when I was 9, as did my daughter. I remember being absolutely terrified, because I had no idea what was happening. I remember doing everything I could to skip PE at primary school, because my bulky pad showed through my gym knickers. After a few months, one kindly teacher noticed what was happening and suggested to my Mum that I should be allowed to wear shorts.

How things have changed! When my daughter started her periods, she was confident enough to tell me, so I rushed out to the supermarket to buy some lightweight pads. I rang up the school next day. The school had procedures in place for girls who started early. My daughter was allowed to change in a toilet cubicle rather than the classroom and she was told to have a quiet word with the teacher if she needed to leave the classroom to change her pad or if she ever felt too embarrassed to do PE. As far as I know, she never did skip PE and never had to deal with the embarrassment of having a red stain on the back of her skirt.

My five year old GD recently had the NSPCC visit her school. They had a talk in assembly about what parts of the body were private, and how to yell in a playground voice if they needed help. No harm in that at all.

I agree with you. The difficulty is, of course, if family members are the abusers.

Sex education covers a whole tranch of concepts, from the physical to the emotional to safety issues and everything in between. I've not seen the guidelines but hope they will be 'age appropriate'

My 7 year-old granddaughter recently told her other grandmother that she didn't want to be kissed any more, but hugs were fine. She said quite assertively 'my body, my choice!' If she says the same things me I'll be happy to accept that. This is an example, I imagine, of the values which are being taught in some schools.

Mixed feelings here, they should be taught the dangers of Internet, but 4 years of age is a little too young for sex education, let them have a childhood. I am surprised at the UK doing this, even here in Sweden ( the land of free sex!) they dont have sexual education in Schools until they are ten/eleven.

It's possibly more important in the UK, because we have traditionally been quite coy about sex.