Grace Essen

Grace Essen

Nigerian youths, like their peers elsewhere in the world, require information, education and communication on sexuality, body changes, gender and psychosocial development. But due to our culture whereby talking about sex is considered ‘taboo’ by many parents and teachers alike, when it comes to issues regarding sex, young people are usually left in the dark. And so, they turn to peer or even the media for information.

About a week or so ago, my attention was called to a video on social media which opened with these words: “This is definitely an attack, it will affect your child rearing, it will affect your education systems…” I got curious. It was the beginning of a 10 minute documentary on Child Sexuality Education. I watched the video to the end and went online to find out more.

If you’re a parent who’s been told that your child’s sex-ed program at school is comprehensive evidenced-based, age-appropriate, and that it promotes healthy relationships, then you, and every other parent who’s been sold the same message, have essentially been lied to. That is, according to a powerful new documentary that’s exposing what producers say is a “deceptive agenda” behind sex-ed programs being pushed not only in schools across the globe, but also by multiple United Nations entities and government bodies.

Sharon Slater, president of Family Watch International and the creator of the documentary in an interview she granted LifeSiteNews said the comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) agenda is very deceptive. According to her, those who promote CSE claim it will delay sexual debut, prevent teen pregnancy, prevent HIV, lift people out of poverty, promote gender equality and much more. Yet it does the opposite. CSE encourages children to engage in sexual experimentation and high-risk sexual behaviors, often instructing children without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

The full version of the documentary, a 35-minute video, takes a detailed look at the overall approach of sex-ed programs from around the world while interviewing experts in the fields of child psychology, health, and wellness. Among the experts consulted is a Nigerian, Dr. Theresa Okafor, Director of the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage.

Some of the pictures were not appropriate to be shown in the news, yet they are in books provided for young children in schools as CSE materials! Some even show pictures of naked boys and girls at different stages of development. There’s even a page taken from a child’s sex-ed program with picture encouraging masturbation. Pupils as low as 9 year old, are taught how to wear condoms, the girls on a male plastic genitalia and boys on female plastic genitalia. A book called Healthy Happy, and Hot for young people living with HIV is purported to teach that they may choose not to disclose their HIV status to their partners if they feel uncomfortable, and they may also choose not to wear a condom if they so wish. The overall conclusion is that CSE, with its graphic content and sexual-rights-based approach is assaulting the health and innocence of children by sexualizing and radicalizing them from an early age.

Parents need to know that some schools are no longer providing traditional sex education; instead, their children are being targeted with graphic sexuality education programs intended to sexualize and radicalize them. The moral and psychological damage inflicted on children by such programs would be “hard to even quantify.” With CSE encouraging children to experiment sexually, this can set them up for early pregnancy, contracting STDs, including HIV.

In addition, it only takes a fraction of a second for a pornographic image to be imprinted on the brain permanently; and, since many CSE programs use materials that are so graphic as to be considered pornographic, CSE can prime kids for pornography addiction. Also, most CSE programs encourage children to question their own gender or encourage children in their gender confusion, which can set children up for a lifetime of confusion.

Comprehensive sexuality education is usually disguised with harmless sounding names like human rights education, gender equality education, or sexual and reproductive health education or information. For example some CSE programs are called “abstinence plus” programs when they have little or no focus on abstinence and largely focus on sexual pleasure. Just because a program is not specifically labeled “comprehensive sexuality education” does not mean it is not CSE. So programs called “sexual education,” “sexuality education,” ”sex education,” or a number of other things, can still be CSE if they have many of the harmful elements of CSE regardless of how it is labeled. CSE is typically taught to children at the youngest of ages, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

Since opposition to CSE programs is increasing as more and more parents are learning about its explicit nature, CSE advocates have become better at disguising it. CSE also comes hidden under many names, such as anti-bullying programs, sexual abuse or rape prevention, family life education, sexual and reproductive health education, healthy relationship education and more. Such catch phrases are commonly used to sell parents the idea of sex-ed. Parents beware!

Please share your thoughts, thank you!

You may reach Grace via email: [email protected]. You can also connect with her on twitter @GraceEssen, on Facebook, and also follow her blog @Mum2MumAfrica.com.