Sex education fights online porn

Victoria is the first state to respond to children's increasing exposure to sexual images online and in the media by introducing sexual health teaching guidelines for children as young as six-years-old.

Since March last year, about 500 teachers have been trained in "Catching on Early", a program developed by Jenny Walsh from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Heath and Society for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

She appears on this week's Insight program called “Generation XXX”, Tuesday night at on SBS.

“Parents are leaving it too late, until grade five and six to discuss matters which children are already getting information about via other sources,” Mrs Walsh said.

The teaching program seeks to start a conversation early so as to balance the information about sexuality that children are increasing getting via internet pornography.

“Times have changed, children are exposed to sexual images earlier and earlier and keeping them vulnerable is not the solution,” Mrs Walsh said.

The pre-emptive strike, according to Mrs Walsh, will also educate children on the commercial use of body and sex images in the media.

“We should be teaching kids to be critical and sceptical of images of sexuality in the media so that they know the things they see in ads and online are only to sell something,” she said.

Like the "Catching on Early" program, the "Talking Sexual Health" program for teenagers in years nine and ten is currently being upgraded to deal with online pornography.

But with the influx of information, the things that teens most want to know are far more innocent.

“The feedback we are getting on what teenagers want to know about is more to do with love, care and affection rather than the biological or medical information,” Mrs Walsh said.

“Parents, teachers and the media are all members of a team when it comes to children's sexual education. As it stands the biggest and most dominant team member is the media,” she said.