This will provide us with a safe and inclusive space to learn more about sex and relationships from a variety of young people’s experiences and perspectives, without worrying about seeing harmful content such as unwanted exposure to sexually explicit content (e.g., porn, images of genitals) without warning. This space should have reliable, relevant and trustworthy information where our questions can be answered in private, without fear of judgement or embarrassment.
This means sex education for all young people, including those of us who are LGBTQ+, gender diverse, disabled, neurodivergent, living with mental illness and/or racially minoritised. Sex education currently available is primarily created for cisgender, heterosexual, white, able-bodied people in traditional relationships.
We need access to sex education in person and online covering issues that impact us directly as well as issues that impact our peers – information should come from a variety of perspectives, using inclusive language. This will allow us to improve our understanding of sex and relationship issues, learn how to advocate for each other, facilitate peer-to-peer support and signposting, and reduce discrimination.
We have a first-hand understanding of the issues affecting young people today and, as the earliest adopters of new platforms online, we are at the forefront of the changing social dynamics related to sex, relationships and wellbeing in the digital age.
With social trends constantly evolving, involving us in the creation of sex education content means we can advise those responsible for our relationships and sex education on what we need to learn about and work together to communicate these issues in a way that is fun, relatable and relevant.
This will mean that our parents/carers and trusted adults who are responsible for educating us on relationships and sex will have a better understanding of the issues we face online that also impact us in person, so they can talk more openly about sex and relationships, and better support and understand us.