New HSE resources aim to help parents have difficult conversations
Traditionally, sex education has come couched in warnings but the HSE encourages parents to highlight the positives, not just the risks. “As a health service we can say there are really positive physical and emotional benefits to having a healthy sexual relationship in the adult years, if that’s your choice,” says Germaine. She would encourage conversations with adolescents about what a sexual relationship involves.
A definition of consent as “ongoing, mutual and freely given” applies at the point of sexual activity, but there is much work to be done to prepare teenagers for the run-up to that point.The issue of whether too much information will accelerate teenagers’ sexual experimentation is a parental concern the world over. It is “much more likely that damage will be done in silence rather than the parent going too far”, says Germaine.
“If parents go down the route of abstinence-only education, there is good evidence, particularly coming out of the United States, that that is not protective of young people,” says Germaine. They are no more inclined to abstain than their peers and when they do engage in sexual activity they are not prepared for safer sex.
Germaine believes we are underserving boys and girls in different ways. Boys generally get less sex education, both at school, particularly in single-sex schools, and at home. The focus still tends to be on the girls, but with an emphasis on the risk of pregnancy.
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