A new era in sex education was marked yesterday with the launch of the State's first ever DVD resource pack to help parents teach their children about sex.
DVD and book was produced for the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA), with input from parents, Health Service Executive (HSE) officials, youth workers and officials from the Departments of Health and Education.
Expert advice is provided by Dr Tony Bates, senior clinical psychologist at St James's Hospital, and Dr Marie Murray, director of psychology at St Vincent's Hospital, Fairview.
Both stress the importance of talking about sex in an age-appropriate way right throughout childhood. This removes the need for the dreaded "sitting down for the big talk".
In the accompanying booklet, Dr Bates says some parents fear that by talking about sex, they may be unintentionally encouraging their children to engage in sexual behaviour before they are emotionally ready.
But by thinking in this way, they are handing over their parental role to the media, their children's friends, the internet and other influences, he says.
"Conversations about sex can begin as soon as their curiosity triggers questions about their own birth or the arrival of newborns into their world."
This DVD and booklet are aimed at parents of children aged between 11 and 15 years. It was produced by Helen Shaw, former director of radio at RTÉ and Journeyman Productions.
It will be distributed free through public libraries, Citizen Information Centres, health board offices and other public facilities.
A video format is also available from the CPA.
The DVD hears some myths about sex from teenagers. One girl said she thought she could get pregnant from a toilet seat. Another said she thought men could only have two children because they had two testicles. And another thought babies were chosen by parents from a book of photographs.
Olive Braiden, chairwoman of the CPA, says the resource pack is unique as parents never had such information at their fingertips before.
The CPA researched the demand for such a pack and found that teenagers wanted information on sexual health and relationships to come from their parents.
"This was quite surprising to me," Braiden says as she had presumed that teenagers would feel embarrassed getting such information from their parents.
"We found that they really wanted to get their values from the parents. They wanted to know what their parents thought about sex and what they expected of them."
She says it is now vital that this new resource is complemented by the Relationships and Sexuality (RSE) programme in all schools.
The Department of Education points out that the programme has been mandatory in all schools since September 2003.
However, Braiden says that some teachers pick the parts of the programme that suit them and shy away from the more difficult areas.
She says children are being sexualised at a younger age because of television and multi-media, so it is important that they are provided with the right information by parents and teachers.
The National Parents Council (Primary) believes the DVD strikes a good balance between the need to inform children without bombarding them with too much information.
Deirdre Sullivan, NPC training and development officer, says children should be allowed to set the pace. "Don't fob them off. Listen to them and answer their questions honestly without giving too much detail," she says. "If it's done at their pace, then children won't be sexualised at too young an age."
Sullivan also calls for better parental involvement in the RSE programme in schools, particularly with the introduction of this new resource pack.
The free DVD and booklet will be available from March 7th in libraries nationwide, or visit www.crisispregnancy.ie or email info@crisispregnancy.ie
