Human beings are naturally curious creatures who, growing up at least, don’t like to share their toys with their siblings, let alone anyone else.
However, humans do love to share information between each other, and this is something that has propelled the Internet in 2012 to its greatest heights yet and the promise of so much more to come, while creating all manner of online criminals ready to digitally rip you off and break into your computer to steal information, accounts, identities and more.
While the benefits and dangers of the Internet do need to be taught to our children, and to all adults and seniors who want to learn about the Internet too, in libraries, computer clubs and PC/Mac/technology users groups, seniors groups, Apple stores, or even with the help of kids and grandkids.
After all, it’s when a parent understands how the Internet works that they can learn how to best manage its use in the home on computers, smartphones, tablets and other devices, while teaching kids the online street smarts they need to know before plunging into social networking, and their responsibilities when using the Internet at non-home or school circumstances, and how they can communicate that when their children are in the care of other parents or caregivers.
However, even if you do all of this, it’s still likely that your children will end up looking at the Internet on an unfiltered device to look up information about sex.
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However, Durex, which is a condom-maker and unsurprising sponsor of a sex survey, was quoted in the News article stating that 50% of those surveyed younger than 25 were getting their information from social media sites, blogs and the Internet, while 36% of those “turn to peers and friends for advice” – with teens surveyed saying the Internet was filling in where school classes and parents didn’t or weren’t able to do.
So, in today’s modern, ultra-connected times, if parents aren’t talking to their kids about sex, kids are just learning from Dad’s hidden Playboy stash under the bed or in the closet, and aren’t just talking to friends or simply experimenting themselves, they’re naturally learning about it on the Internet too.
How much they learn, how they learn it and when they learn it is first and foremost in the control of parents, especially those empowered by knowing when their school is due to starting formally teaching sex education in the curriculum, and how it normally goes about teaching it.
This is especially so given the “level of ignorance” over sex by youngers through childishly naïve sex questions by children that the Daily Telegraph has also reported on today.
Despite the enormous pressures of modern life, parents that want to stay more fully engaged with what their children are learning about life, the universe and everything are able to do so, with such an outcome hopefully raising better, stronger and smarter children than those with less or no proper supervision, especially as they grow into their early teen years.
Sex education is just one part of a wide and varied curriculum of subjects that young student studies in his or her life, but if kids themselves are saying that schools and parents are doing a good enough job, schools and parents need to find a way to do better, lest the unsupervised Internet teach our children the wrong lessons.
