A new study has found that young Israeli boys are accessing pornography at a younger age than ever before. For most, it is already during their primary school years. By the 7th grade, the study found, 78 percent of boys and 47 percent of girls have been exposed to pornography.
From a cross section of 739 young boys and girls from around the country, including secular and religious youth, the researchers found that 83 percent of all young people had experienced sexual activity by the time they were 18 years old.
Sadly, they also learned that parents are not talking about sex with their children. The survey found that most children have never had a single meaningful conversation with their parents about love, puberty, pornography or sexual orientation (homosexuality). “We found that the number of conversations children have with their parents about sex and sexuality are very few,” researchers wrote in the report presented to Israel’s Ministry of Education.
Most children (75%) have never spoken with their parents about taking nude selfies or videos, though more than 50 percent of the youth admitted in the study having sent a nude photo over the internet.
Because our children are not being educated about sex in the home, it was not surprising that researchers found that most children now learn about sex over the internet on their mobile phones and computers.
Since the family is not involved, researchers are therefore recommending a frightening initiative to Israel’s Ministry of Education. “Establish a sex education program beginning at kindergarten up through high school graduation for secular and religious children across the country,” according to the report.
The study goes on to recommend that “it is no longer enough to have just a few classes on sex education for 12th graders about abstention and birth control,” they explain, “but a comprehensive program that looks at the political and ideological aspects of pornography and sexuality,” but also includes progressive views on homosexuality, gender reassignment and premarital sex.
These dramatic changes to the curriculum in the Israeli educational system from kindergarten to high school may not be that far away. The research and recommendations for the push to require sex education in Israeli school were compiled by Mofet, an NGO that is fully funded by the Israeli Government’s Ministry of Education for research and curriculum development in teacher education in Israeli schools.
